Georgia Birding Tours

Mount Shkhara in the Greater Caucasus is the country’s highest mountain at 16,627 feet (5,068 meters) while the famous Mount Kazbek, where we will visit on our Georgia: Mountain and Steppe Birding in Winter birding tour, is yet another peak of over 16,404 feet (5,000 meters). To the south of the Lesser Caucasus lies the Southern Georgia Volcanic Highland, an area we visit on our Georgia: Eagles and Endemics in Fall birding tour, which is a fascinating and scenic part of this beautiful country. Georgia is also home to the Krubera Cave which is the deepest known cave in the world with a known depth of 7,021 feet (2,140 meters).

The bird list of Georgia currently stands at 414 species (following International Ornithological Congress (IOC) taxonomy v10.2 in January 2021), with many of these species being highly sought-after by birders from all over the world, due to their localized global distribution (species and subspecies) or the difficulty associated with accessing them in the rest of their range. Our two brand-new and incredibly exciting birding tours to Georgia cover the entire country and present the full scope of its wonderful birdlife across two sensational seasons. Combine this with the wonderful (and fascinating) food, hospitable people, stunning scenery, and a sense of heading somewhere out of the ordinary and you have a country that delights and amazes in equal measure.

Some of the key species that we look for on our Georgia birding tours include Caucasian Snowcock, Caspian Snowcock, Caucasian Grouse, Great Rosefinch (Caucasian endemic rubicilla subspecies), Güldenstädt’s Redstart, Red-fronted Serin, Mountain Chiffchaff (local lorenzii subspecies and a potential split), Twite (breviorostris subspecies and a potential split), Sociable Lapwing, Black Francolin, Little Bustard, Pygmy Cormorant, Pine Bunting, Krüper’s Nuthatch, Western Rock Nuthatch, Rock Sparrow, Dalmatian Pelican, Pallas’s Gull, Armenian Gull, Green Warbler, Menetries’s Warbler, Alpine Accentor, Wallcreeper (a monotypic family), Citrine Wagtail, White-winged Snowfinch, Alpine Chough, Chukar Partridge, and much more, including the interesting and rather poorly understood archibaldi subspecies of Common Crane.

Georgia is also famous for its eclectic and vast list of resident and migrant birds of prey, with Bearded Vulture, Cinereous Vulture, Griffon Vulture, White-tailed Eagle, Steppe Eagle, Golden Eagle, Eastern Imperial Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Long-legged Buzzard, Pallid Harrier, Lanner Falcon, Saker Falcon, and Levant Sparrowhawk being highlights. The bird of prey migration which occurs in the Batumi Bottleneck each year is one of nature’s magnificent wonders. Over 1 million raptors are regularly seen during the fall season here, along with significant numbers of migrating passerines, shorebirds (waders), wildfowl, herons, egrets, storks, cranes, and pelicans. We will get to enjoy this thrilling spectacle on our Georgia: Eagles and Endemics in Fall birding tour.