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www.sunbirdtours.co.uk Email: sunbird@sunbirdtours.co.ukSunbird, 26B The Market Square, Potton, Sandy, Bedfordshire, SG19 2NP Tel: 01767 262522

December 2018Newsletter

Wishing all our friends and travelling companions a peaceful Christmas and a New Year full of great

birds

The stunning and aptly named Resplendent Quetzal is something of the poster bird for Costa Rica, where we have a number of tour options to explore.

INSIDE - Focus on Costa Rica - Georgia - Lesvos - Morocco - Taiwan - Recent Tours - Late Availability -

Latest News

RECENT TOURS

Focus on Costa RicaFor such a small country, Costa Rica has a staggering species list of nearly 900 birds. Such is this diversity of wildlife and habitats that in 2019 we are offering three tours to this delightful country. Besides the wildlife, Costa Rica’s superb infrastructure, with some wonderfully comfortable lodges that focus onecotourism, coupled with its renowned friendliness and safety makes this a perfect birding destination. Whether you are looking for an introduction to the birds of the Neotropics or are seeking some of the regions special birds, Costa Rica is ideal for a birding holiday.

© Nick Hawkins/naturepl.com

The Cordillera de Talamanca (pictured above) is typical of the lush cloud forest that cloaks so much of Costa Rica. Running down the centre of the country is a spine of mountains which creates contrasting Pacific and Caribbean slopes, with ocean currents and prevailing winds forming a drier north and wetter south. We’ll visit many of these varying habitats, including the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and the famous biological research station at La Selva, adjacent to the Braulio Carrillo National Park. On the July tour we may also have the opportunity to watch Green Sea Turtles coming ashore at night to lay eggs.

Our three tours for 2019 are:

12 - 26 March with Rich Hoyer20 - 31 July with Luke Seitz6 - 20 November with Luke Seitz

Perhaps no group showcases the vivid plumages of many Costa Rican birds better than the tanagers. Here are just two of many seen on our tours, Spangle-cheeked Tanager (left) and Silver-throated Tanager

Your tour leaders for Costa RicaLuke Seitz (and a Red-eyed Tree Frog) Rich Hoyer

Having developed an interest in the birds of his native North America, it was a week-long stint in northwest Ecuador at the age of 14 that opened Luke’s eyes to the avian diversity that South America has to offer. He now leads several tours to the region, in between pursuing his many other interests, which range from studying philosophy to bird illustration.

Rich is well-known for his wide natural history knowledge base which covers not only birds of South America (he leads 15 tours within the Neotropics) but also the myriad of insects, reptiles and plants to be found there. A tour with Rich is a complete wildlife experience.

Many of the lodges we stay at are situated right in the heart of great habitat, giving us a comfortable base for our birding, and meaning that we do not have to travel far to see some wonderful birds, such as this Crested Guan (above right).

Costa Rica is a very beautiful country with some outsanding scenery. The impressive Arenal volcano (right) dominates the skyline of the Caribbean lowlands and we spend time birding the surrounding bird-rich forest.

Georgia We have been running spring tours to Georgia since 2004 and it remains a fascinatiing and popular birding destination. We time our tour early when the winter snows are keeping the special birds we seek well down in the valleys. Besides those key species - Caucasian Snowcock, Caucasian Black Grouse, Güldenstädt’s Redstart, and Great Rosefinch - a spring tour to Georgia is a great place to catch up with a whole bunch of special birds that can be difficult to see elsewhere. One of these is Wallcreeper. This photograph was taken on our Georgia tour and we find this avain butterfly a very easy bird to see, and see well on the tour.

Other species this tour is particularly good for include the mighty Lammergeier, which looks spectacular gliding over the mighty Caucasus Mountains, dashing Levant Sparrowhawk, delicately marked Ménétries’s Warbler, which can be surpringly common, and smart Semi-collared Flycatcher to mention a few.

Our 2019 tour runs from 23-29 April with Paul French and Giorgi Darchiashvili leading as usual.

* SPRING TOURS * SPRING TOURS * SPRING TOURS *Here are few ideas for places to go birding next Spring

Ménétries’s Warbler

Levant SparrowhawkLammergeier

Semi-collared Flycatcher

Lesvos: 17 - 25 April with Killian Mullarney

* SPRING TOURS * SPRING TOURS * SPRING TOURS *

This is another long-running tour and the magical Greek island of Lesvos has become something of a second home for leader Killian. Birding on Lesvos is a real delight - everywhere you go there are drifts of gorgeous wildflowers and a staggering abundance of butterflies, and our explorations take us through tiny white-painted villages dotted with tempting tavernas - Mediterranean birding does not get much better than this.

Steeped in history, its rich tapestry of habitats, ranging from rocky mountains, forested hills, and stony uncultivated pasture, through to fertile lowlands planted with figs and olive groves, as well as coastal wetlands ensures an exciting variety of migrant and resident landbirds. And being based at just one hotel for the whole time adds to the relaxed nature of this tour.

Birding on Lesvos mixes local specialities such as this Cinereous Bunting (main photo) and Krüper’s Nuthatch (above centre) with exciting migrants such as Little Crake (above left) and Red-footed Falcon (above right) - you never know just what you are going to bump into.

Morocco: 23 March - 2 Aprilwith Stephen Menzie

* SPRING TOURS * SPRING TOURS * SPRING TOURS *

As early spring touches Morocco, the country bursts into life, offering the visiting birdwatcher some truly memorable experiences. We begin in the town of Marrakech before heading into the dramatic mountains of the High Atlas. Here we’ll seek out a variety of mountain species, and in particular the elusive Crimson-winged Finch, a species that is probably seen more easily here than anywhere else.

Perhaps most exciting of all will be our trip through the desert areas near Boumalne and Merzouga along the edge of the spectacular Sahara Desert. In this beautiful landscape are more exciting birds including some classic desert species of North Africa such as Cream-coloured Courser, Thick-billed Lark and Desert Sparrow. We then travel down to the Atlantic coast and Agadir where we hope to find Northern Bald Ibis, one of the world’s rarest birds, as well as a variety of waterbirds on the estuaries of the Souss and Massa.

Taiwan: 20 April - 2 May with Paul Holt

The vivid Swinhoe’s Pheasant is one of four game birds endemic to the island of Taiwan.

Taiwan boasts an impressive array of endemic species such as Taiwan Yuhina, Collared Bush Robin, White-eared Sibia and Steere’s Liocichla. Endemic birds are not all that Taiwan has to offer however. The island is the winter home to the bulk of the tiny world population of Black-faced Spoonbill and we should see a few lingering birds, and the tour’s timing, at the height of the spring migration, means that we’re sure to find a decent number of East Asian migrants. We also stand a good chance of seeing that most elusive of Asian birds, Fairy Pitta.

Northern Bald Ibis

* RECENT TOURS *

After a break of several years, Sunbird enjoyed a return visit to Oman with Stephen Menzie leading a tour there recently. Undoubtably one of the friendliest and most beautiful Middle Eastern countries, Oman also gave us some really excellent birding. The group caught up with a number of sought-after regional specialities, amongst them Persian Shearwater (point-blank views on a pelagic), Abdim’s Stork, Sooty Gull, Saunder’s Tern, Verreaux’s Eagle, Plain Leaf Warbler, Asian Desert Warbler, Variable Wheatear, Arabian Babbler and Striolated Bunting. On several days the birding continued beyond sunset, with Pallid Scops Owl, Arabian Scops Owl, Arabian Eagle Owl and the recently discovered Omani Owl all added to the trip list.

The dates for the 2019 Oman tour are 14 - 24 November with Stephen Menzie leading once more.

Once again Ethiopia came up trumps, showing us a whole bunch of interesting birds. Right at the start, a close encounter with an Egyptian Plover in the Jemma Valley was an unexpected surpise and other highlights here included Black-faced Firefinch. We saw all of the endemics, from the rather plain Ankober Serin to the fascinating Prince Ruspoli’s Turaco and Stresemann’s Bush-crow, as well as the recently split Black-fronted Francolin (one of nine francolin species recorded). On the northen plains we saw a staggering 13 Arabian Bustards in one location, some ‘decorated’ with stunning Northern Carmine Bee-eaters riding on their backs. There was some superb raptor migration with large numbers of Lesser Kestrels and Steppe Eagles, and something of an ‘Owl Fest’ with Abyssinian, Cape Eagle, and African Wood Owls all in one afternoon.

The dates for next year’s tour are 22 October - 8 November and the tour is already filling up.

As you would expect from a country so rich in natural splendour, our November Tanzania tour provided a never-ending array of birds and mammals. We watched prides of stately Lions prowling across the golden-yellow savannah in search of their Wildebeest prey, which we also saw in abundance. There were beautfully coloured White-headed Vultures perched by a Serengeti roadside, 9 Greater Painted-snipe inhabiting the hippo pools in the amazing Ngorongoro Crater, 2 African Broadbills in their forest home, and those two masters of the African skies, Martial Eagle and Crowned Eagle, both with classic prey items of a dikdik and a Blue Monkey respectively.

We run two tours a year to Tanzania, in March and November. Both of the 2019 tours are already full but we are taking bookings for 2020. See our website for details.

Tanzania: November 2018

Oman - November 2018

Arabian Bustard and Northern Carmine Bee-eater on our recent Ethiopia tour.

Ethiopia: November 2018

The group saw no less than 9 Greater Painted-snipe in the Ngorongoro Crater.

Our Oman pelagic gave us point-blank views of Persian Shearwater.

You can find full details, including a list of the birds seen on each tour, on our website.

Late Availability - at the time of writing places are available on the following tours

Latest News - Paul Holt has just finished a scouting trip to Maharashtra, India. His primary aim was to see the relatively recently discovered Forest Owlet and he quickly found this very localised rarity, estimated to have a population of no more than 600 individuals. Paul spent two nights on-site but saw the owl during the day. Other highlights included Painted Francolin, Jungle Bush Quail, Mottled Wood Owl, Jungle Nightjar and Tickell’s Thrush. We are intending to add a three-day, two-night Forest Owlet extension as a pre-tour option from Mumbai (Bombay) to both our South India and Andamans in December 2019 and to the West India/Gujarat tour when we operate it again in 2020. Details to appear on our website soon. Photo Tony Sawbridge

United Arab Emirates: 20 - 27 January with Nick Moran

Yunnan: 10 - 24 March with Paul Holt

Western Sahara: 14 - 20 March with Steve Rooke

Israel (2nd departure): 29 March - 8 April with Paul French

Bhutan: 27 March - 13 April (1 place left) with Paul Holt

Spain - the Grand Tour: 27 April - 10 May with John Muddeman

Crab Plover - U.A.E

White-browed Shortwing - Yunnan

African Dunn’s Lark - Western Sahara

Ibisbill - BhutanDead Sea Sparrow -Israel