Greetings, and welcome to our February emailing!

Winter is in full swing here in North America, but we're only a handful of weeks away from the vernal equinox. Until then, keep the fireplace aflame, and maybe let your mind wander and think about traveling to see birds in enthralling places.

As you read this, our guides and participants are enjoying the birds and wildlife in India, Panama, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. In the next few days we are launching tours to Cambodia, Belize, and Mexico. Perhaps you've already got a tour booked with us in the upcoming months, but if not, keep reading...we have plenty of places we'd love to show you.

In this email we've assembled some avian eye-candy for you in the form of photos from our recent tours in our Recent Photos Gallery—this month's selection contains more than 100 photographs submitted by participants and guides from Brazil, South Africa, Antarctica, India, Namibia, Arizona, Belize, and California. We've added two departures to South America this fall; those details are below. You'll find a few suggestions for near-term travel for anyone inclined to get away in the next couple of months. There's a section about our private tour program, which is an amazing opportunity to create an unforgettable tour with our guide and a group of your making. There are two short, beautiful videos from recent Oaxaca and Arizona tours filmed by our guides, as well as a link to a new, free video from our OutBirding series featuring guide Jesse Fagan in Peru. A couple other odds and ends are included as well. Lastly, we feature seven new triplists from recent tours and 21 updated itineraries for 2023.

Thanks to our guide Terry Stevenson for the image above. Terry has been guiding in Africa for decades, but there are moments when even he becomes an enthralled tourist—such as when a Lion approaches this closely. We're just happy that it wasn't focused on us! To possibly have your own close encounter with a Lion, check out our Wild Kenya: A Tented Camp Safari tour. We depart in late July with Terry guiding, and there is still space available. Thanks also to guide Doug Gochfeld for providing the great image below of a Cape Sugarbird perched on sugarbush from our recent South Africa tour.

"I would travel with Marcelo Barreiros anywhere!" Not to boast, but we hear that quite a bit from our clients about our guides (not just Marcelo, though we know he's great!). Well, how about going with Marcelo to Guyana, home to some of the most truly wild places left on earth? The Iwokrama Forest Reserve stretches across nearly a million acres in the heart of Guyana, and it's practically untrodden. This is a survey birding tour loaded with Guianan shield specialties, and side trips to coastal and savanna regions and the spectacular Kaieteur Falls. Have a look at the itinerary for Guyana: Wilderness Paradise—this third departure just added for 2023 runs Dec 9-20—and book yourself a chance to see the fantastic bird pictured here, Guianan Cock-of-the-rock.

If those dates don't work for you, how about joining Micah Riegner on our just-added second departure for Nov 8-19 to Suriname? This is another country where wilderness abounds. A population of only 750,000 lives in a country a little smaller than Oklahoma—and most of them live near the coast, leaving the vast interior in a wild, unspoiled state. Suriname is culturally unique in South America. Formerly "Dutch Guiana," Suriname has a population that is a rich mixture of cultures and religions from around the globe. And the birds? Do trumpeters, bizarre cotingas, Rufous Crab Hawks, Crimson Fruitcrows, and Dusky Purpletufts pique your interest? They're all on the menu. Review the itinerary for Succinct Suriname: Cotingas & Trumpeters, and contact our office to join us.

We know that sometimes the desire to get away arises quickly and unpredictably. Below we have three unforgettable tours that have spaces available. How did that old beer commercial go? "If you've got the time, we've got the...tour?" Warm days, great guides, awesome birds. These tours are 10-15 days long (including travel) and offer spectacular birding. We're going. Would you like to join us? Just click the links to learn more about each tour, and contact our office for more information.

Would you like to organize your own tour with a group of special birding friends or for your local birding club with one of our world-class guides? We regularly put together private departures for groups of 6 or more to many different destinations, and they are invariably a big hit. Just contact our office to start planning your group's next great birding trip. Examples of some private group departures coming up with us in the next few months include Guatemala, Spain, New Guinea, and New Zealand. Where would you like to go? We're certain we can help make it an unforgettable adventure.

Click the images above to watch short, beautiful videos that will take you on a couple of our recent tours. At left (or top on mobile), a video by guides Bret Whitney and Micah Riegner from our Mexico: Oaxaca Valley tour in late December. At right (bottom on mobile), from guide Tom Johnson some video highlights from our Arizona's Second Spring tour back in August. There is space available on each tour for our 2023 departures.

Here's another chance to check out (for free!) a video from our OutBirding subscription series. In it, guide Jesse Fagan takes us on a short tour of the Tambopata, a region of the Amazon basin in Peru. To whet your appetite for our video series—and for our Peruvian Rainforests of the Tambopata: Macaw Lick Extraordinaire tour—we've made this one available free on our YouTube channel. Click the link above, and if you like what you see, consider subscribing to OutBirding, where we promise an ever-growing collection of all things birds and birding. If the tour seems like one you'd be interested in, we have space on our Jul 22-Aug 1 departure. Just contact our office for more information.

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!

Back in December, we featured several tours that were new or returning in 2023 and 2024. Those tours generated quite a bit of interest, and we received flurry of sign-ups in response. We'll certainly mention those tours that haven't filled again in future emailings, but listed below are the 2023 departures that still have space, including one in late March—where you have a good chance at seeing the lovely Pink-headed Warbler pictured here. As always, you can contact our office to speak to one of our wonderful tour managers to get more information.

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.

Below we list our tours departing in the next six months that still have space available. Many of these tours typically fill up many months in advance, so it is always worth checking here to see if space has become available on short notice. Have a look, and if anything fits your schedule, just contact our office to hold a space.

You can find more information about each of the tours listed here by clicking the links to visit their tour pages. Our thanks to participant Herb Fletcher for this shot of Guira Cuckoos, a species we find on our Rainforest & Savanna: Alta Floresta & the Northern Pantanal, Brazil tour.

MACHU PICCHU & ABRA MALAGA, PERU

SPRING IN CAPE MAY