AUSTRALASIA

Images of Australian cities, as beautiful as they are, cannot compare to the wildlife lying only an hour from any major airport. You soon feel the differences between Australia and the rest of the world as the Aussie bush absorbs you. Most people appreciate that Australia is huge, but it is the vast range of habitats that stuns all visitors: rainforests, coral reefs, coastal heaths, stony deserts, sandy deserts, alpine meadows, savanna grasslands, and Eucalypt woodlands are all here in the one country. Australia, with its excellent infrastructure, small population, and well-maintained reserves, remains under-birded, and you only rarely bump into other birders. A sense of isolation, just you with the birds in the bush, is very easy to achieve here. It is obvious why so many foreign birders immigrate here; when you are outnumbered 10,000 to 1 by a parrot flock, it is hard to go back home. We currently offer a tour to Eastern Australia that takes in the all of the major faunal zones, and we expect to pretty much clean up this part of the vast continent. Tropical Birding also has a trip through The Outback, where we visit areas as different as Ayers Rock in the Red Center to Kakadu in the Top End.

Unique, one of a kind, exceptional, and matchless are adjectives that don’t even come close to describing New Guinea. The huge highland populations were not even known to westerners until the 1930s when some gold explorers flew over them by chance. Logistics today are still a hassle (ours not yours), but some of the lodges are terrific and the birding is so rewarding that it is nearly impossible to imagine people leaving Papua New Guinea disappointed. It may be expensive, but worth every penny, especially if you feel that irresistible need to add 20 birds-of-paradise to your list.

New Zealand is far more sanitized and offers very easy birding. This region has stunning scenery and the remaining forests hold some very special birds. New Zealand also offers some of the best pelagic birding in the world. Only there is it possible to have the very surreal experience of watching a multitude of albatrosses cruising just a few feet away with high mountains rising up behind them.

We also have a range of custom tour itineraries to central, northern, and western Australia, Irian Jaya, New Guinea, New Zealand, and even New Caledonia.  

ASIA  

Whether it is the mists rising off the glassy surface of the Kinabatangan River with gibbons wailing in the background, or snow-lined peaks rising above Balang Shan, Asia is truly inspiring and offers innumerable treats to birders. Electric blue Grandalas standing in snow, Golden Pheasants sneaking through bamboo scrub, or massive flocks of Helmeted, Rhinoceros, and Great Hornbills wolfing down fruits at a giant fig are all unforgettable memories. However, it is hard to beat the astonishing pittas, particularly with their bright and colorful plumages that simply glow in the dark recesses of the forest floor. These birding treats are often enhanced with Buddhist temples, Moghul palaces, tom yum soup, or a casual Cantonese style dim sum dinner.

Our assortment of Asia trips is as diverse as it is exciting. Our regular offerings to the sophisticated and rapidly developing countries of Thailand and Malaysia are among our most popular tours. This is hardly surprising given the fantastic combination of high altitude, lowland, and mangrove forest birding on offer. In combination with legendary Borneo, this is a birding wonderland. The region is comparatively well developed making these amazing wildernesses both easily accessible and comfortable. We stay in impressive lodges perched on the edges of ox-bow lakes, with barbets, trogons, and leafbirds jostling in the canopy of towering Banyan trees, often visible from the comfort of lodge balconies. Our tours take in some of the best parts of these dwindling wilderness areas as we search for typical Asian gems such as elegant pheasants, rowdy laughingthrushes, amazing trogons, sneaky wren-babblers, sprightly sunbirds, and technicolor broadbills.

With an archipelago of over 7000 islands it is no great surprise that the Philippines is loaded with endemics. Few other places on earth can compete with these islands for number of localized specialties. Many of the birds here are just mind-blowing, including the sapphire-spangled Palawan Peacock-Pheasant, and the immense, and incredibly rare, Monkey-eating Eagle. The unique nature of these islands is emphasized by some of the world’s strangest bird names like Balicassiao, Coleto, and Guaiabero. In the only Catholic country in Asia, these peculiar birds are set against a backdrop of towns with an old austere Spanish architecture, and the result is an intoxicating mixture of the familiar and the distinctive.

For those of you drawn to the Indian subcontinent, we offer two tours to India. The new Asia Introtour combines endemic-hunting in the western Ghats with effortless coastal birding in Goa. While our northern India trip combines superb wetland, dry country, and Himalayan foothill birding with virtually guaranteed Tigers, and a dab of culture at the Taj Mahal. We are also expanding and refining our offerings in China. This immense country offers so much, but it is hard to beat our flagship Sichuan and Tibetan Plateau trip that offers a bevy of pheasants including the amazing Chinese Monal, the incomparable White Eared-Pheasant, and the breathtaking Temminck’s Tragopan. However, it will now be possible to combine this back-to-back with our new tour to Beidaihe, China, Asia’s greatest migrant trap. Around this town, thrushes, robins, and warblers hop around your feet, and thousands of shorebirds are sprinkled along the coast, making for an unforgettable adventure.

If a private trip with a few friends interests you, remember that we are now able to put together customized trips to northeast India, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Bhutan, Sulawesi, Halmahera, Taiwan, or even a crane-bonanza in Manchuria at the drop of a hat. Overall we are spoiled for choice with a set of inspiring trips throughout this vibrant region.