Happy Holidays, and welcome to our December emailing!
As you read this we have tours wrapping up in Vietnam, Guyana, and Mexico, with another seven coming up over the holidays. Among these, we have just one space left on guide Willy Perez's trip to wonderful Wildsumaco Lodge on Ecuador's bird-rich East Slope, Dec 28-Jan 7. Contact our office to give yourself a wonderful holiday gift of hummers, tanagers, and other jewels!
With the first day of winter just around the corner, and daylight hours reaching their annual lows, it is a good time to start looking toward spring. April is the month that our mainland U.S. tours awaken from a two-month torpor. Several of our stalwart tours still have a few spaces available. Destinations like Big Bend or the Texas Coast, up to Colorado to round up some Grouse, to Arizona for some nightbirds, and to sunny Florida, we have room on all of them—for now. These tours typically fill, so contact our office
to hold a space.
In this email, you'll find links to the newest installment of our popular Recent Photos Gallery—this month's selection contains about 100 delightful photographs submitted by participants and guides from ten destinations, including Norway, Bolivia, Maine, Brazil, and more. You'll also find a summary of our new and returning tours in 2023 and 2024. We have a link to a five-minute video we think you'll enjoy from our recent Bolivia's Avian Riches tour. And there's our regular listing of upcoming tours with space, which includes destinations in Brazil, Panama, and Mexico among other Latin America venues. Take a look below to see if anything piques your interest. Lastly, we feature nine new triplists from recent tours and 13 updated itineraries for 2023.
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New & returning tours in 2023 & 2024 |
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We are excited to review with you a heap of new tours that are coming up this year and next. Contact our office to hold a space or to get on the waitlist, or please do so if you have any additional questions about any of the tours below. It's worth getting on the waitlist for currently fully booked tours, as spots do open up regularly!
NEW IN 2023
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Mexico: Enchanted Chiapas - As far south in Mexico as one can get, it's a two-week immersion in the land of Nava's Wren, Rosita's Bunting, and Pink-headed Warbler, as well as spectacular Sumidero Canyon. Space available in 2024.
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Finland Spring: Wolverines, Owls & Wild-Wild Grouse - A superb itinerary from the capital to the Arctic Circle that showcases Finland's birds and mammals and landscapes at the height of the spring season. Contact us to be on the waiting list for 2023 or 2024.
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Southern Africa Spectacular: Kruger, Victoria Falls, Zambezi River & Chobe - Featuring fantastic birding, game viewing, and wildlife photographic opportunities in three classic destinations in South Africa, Zambia, and Botswana, and includes visits to some iconic southern African destinations such as Kruger National Park, the Blyde River Canyon, Botswana's Chobe National Park, and Victoria Falls. One space available in 2023.
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Amazing Angola - Endemic-rich and off the beaten path. We'll visit the spectacular Tundavala Escarpment in the south, the lush Guinea forests of the north, and we can expect a bird list in excess of 500 species. Relatively unexplored in ornithological terms, Angola still turns up new finds on a regular basis, which of course adds to the excitement of any trip. Space available in 2024.
NEW IN 2024
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Atlantic Odyssey: South Georgia to Tristan de Cunha and St. Helena - Exceptional seabirding opportunities on this re-positioning cruise. For the first time, we have spaces on this legendary cross-Atlantic excursion where we'll explore seldom-visited swaths of the central Atlantic Ocean, including some of the most remote islands on Earth. Space available.
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Central Asia: Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan & Kazakhstan - A three-country tour exploring the scenic Central Asian steppes, deserts, canyons, and high mountains, for an enticing mix of localized resident species and northbound migrants, with the added cultural element of the beautifully preserved Silk Road cities of Samarkand and Bukhara. Space available.
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China's Sichuan Province - Sichuan's wide range of habitat types can produce a great diversity of bird species, including 14 species in the pheasant family; eight species of Parrotbills; Rosefinches, Redstarts, and Old World Warblers (more than 20 species). From big and fancy to small and subtle, with fascinating culture and delicious food to boot, Sichuan has it all! Space available.
Aside from the new tours above, 2023 marks the return of a couple tours that haven't been scheduled in several years.
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Guatemala: Shade-grown Birding - This is an every-other-year or every-third-year tour that hasn't been scheduled since 2019. We target Resplendent Quetzal, a host of hummingbirds, and Azure-rumped Tanager, all set against a dramatic volcanic landscape and colorful Mayan culture. Space available Mar 30-Apr 8.
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Iquitos, Peru: Canopy Walkways & Ancient Forests - The Peruvian Amazon is one of the richest regions in Amazonia. More than 600 species of birds have been recorded between the city of Iquitos and our lodges downstream on the Amazon and Napo. Some are only recently (or have yet to be) described to science. At the white-sand forests of the Allpahuayo-Mishana Reserve, we'll search for several species of birds unknown to science as recently as 1998. Space available Jul 30-Aug 12.
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A fun video from our Bolivia tour |
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Micah Riegner recently guided our Bolivia's Avian Riches tour alongside Dan Lane. Micah returned with plenty of video footage, and he put together a fun video that has footage of more than 35 bird species, as well as cool aerial footage made with a drone. The video runs about five minutes long, and we think you'll enjoy it. You can see it embedded on the tour page, or click here to watch or on the video image above.
Did you know that many of our guides include short videos in their triplists, including several of those linked below? And of course our excellent OutBirding series is full of many longer, high-quality videos covering scores of topics. |
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Field Guides video series |
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If you're in need of a neat gift idea, our OutBirding series just might be the thing you're looking for. We offer a fine collection of videos by our guides and monthly or annual subscriptions are available and will give you unlimited access to our video library. Our most recent episode is by Bret Whitney, as he delves into the differences between Crimson and Fiery Topaz, two little-studied hummingbirds of the Amazon basin. You can see samples and descriptions of other videos on our OutBirding blog page. |
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Triplists from recent tours |
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We have triplists from past tours linked below, each with some lovely images and some with video clips, and all with great annotations by our guides. Enjoy! |
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Comments from participants |
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We carefully read each post-tour evaluation we receive from our participants, so that we can continue to offer the best possible birding experiences and service on Field Guides birding tours. Here are a couple of representative recent comments. From all of us at Field Guides, our thanks for all your valuable feedback. |
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“Cory Gregory is another example of the quality of guide you expect and get with Field Guides. I have toured with Field Guides in the past and have never been disappointed. I always find them to be a step ahead of all the other tour groups I’ve traveled with. The birding was great, and Cory’s expertise and knowledge got us on many great western specialties. He managed to weave a healthy dose of "sightseeing" into the trip with great views of the varied topography and geology of the region. Even when in the van, the experience was rewarding as we traveled through the ever changing landscapes. The accommodations, the dining, the guide, the venues we visited, and the birding were all great. The service of tour manager Nicole Cannon and office staff goes above and beyond. All my needs and requests—including the arrangement of our flights—were met with obvious concern by all the staff. We have never had a bad experience and that tradition continues.” D.B., Oregon: From the Coast to the Cascades I, 2022
“We have been traveling with Field Guides since 2010 and have always been very pleased with the overall operation of the company and the performance of the guides. This was the 4th trip we'd taken with John Coons and, as before, we enjoyed his company and the tour immensely. We had been to the Texas Gulf Coast during Spring Migration about fifteen years ago before we knew about Field Guides, and wanted to repeat the trip under optimal conditions. We were not disappointed! The weather gods cooperated to produce a legendary "fallout” at Sabine Woods. John's keen ear picked out a Golden-winged Warbler's call deep in the woods and he led us to it. That was a "lifer" for me! The service of the tour manager and office staff was superb, as always. Never a complaint there. When compared to other experiences with other birding tour companies or organizations, Field Guides is number one!” S.B., Texas Coast Migration Spectacle II, 2022
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Tours with openings through May |
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Every month in this section we list tours with space still available for the next several months. If you have the ability to get away on short notice, there are some great tours listed below that still have some space. Please have a look, and if anything fits your schedule, just contact our office to hold a space, and of course please do so if you have any questions.
As always, you can find more information about any of the trips by clicking below to visit their tour pages. We look forward to traveling with you. Our thanks to participant Ben Loehnen for this image of a Spotted Wood-Quail—a species rarely seen out in the open like this—from our most recent Western Panama: Chiriqui & Bocas del Toro tour.
SOUTH AMERICA
NORTH AMERICA
MIDDLE AMERICA & WEST INDIES
AFRICA
EUROPE
ASIA
AUSTRALASIA
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Recently posted upcoming itineraries |
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Click on any image or link below to see the detailed itinerary for the following tours. All of these itineraries are packed with information (and have a few nice photos as well). |
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Field Guides Incorporated, 9433 Bee Cave Rd #2-105, Austin, TX 78733
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