Greetings, and welcome to our March emailing!

Spring is on its way—and that means the migrants are too. It also means that flowering trees start to bloom, birdsong fills the air, and of course warmer temperatures arrive.

At Field Guides another sign of spring is the increased number of U.S. tours we'll be operating over the next few months. Many U.S.-based birders have a roster of places around the country they intend to visit some day—and we offer tours to most of them. Maybe this is the year you get out to see a California Condor on our Northern Arizona's Canyons & Condor tour with John Coons. Perhaps you've been thinking about experiencing the Dry Tortugas and the spectacle of Brown Noddies and Sooty Terns—and maybe see Black-whiskered Vireo and Mangrove Cuckoo along the way. If so, guide Jesse Fagan is leading a tour to Florida in late April. Another must on any birder's list is seeing the dancing chickens on their leks; one of our staples over the years has been Colorado Grouse, and we have two available departures if this is the year you'd like to make it happen. Are there any eastern warblers that you've yet to track down? Our Pennsylvania's Warblers & More: From Cerulean Warbler to Henslow's Sparrow with Tom Johnson usually racks up a couple dozen of these species—all in fine feather and full song. Of course there are many other options, both domestic and across the globe, whether it be for spring, summer, or beyond.

In the field right now we have a group exploring the wild and ecologically rich island of Borneo, while other folks are in east Africa, Brazil, or Oaxaca. In the next few days we set off to the Bahamas, Ghana, and Hawaii. Hopefully you've already booked your next adventure with us. If not, scroll down for some inspiration.

Below we have some exciting news about a long-awaited return to Trinidad & Tobago. We have a spotlight on one of our newest tours we're excited about that visits three countries in southern Africa. We have two new short videos from triplists from recent tours. And of course we have our monthly features, including 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 ten destinations on five continents. We feature seven new triplists from recent tours and 14 updated itineraries for 2023. A couple other odds and ends are included as well.

Thanks to our guide Micah Riegner for the image above, taken with a drone while he was guiding our Brazil's Rio Roosevelt: Birding the River of Doubt in 2019. Micah and the rest of the group are in the three boats pictured. If you'd like to visit some of the Amazon's most remote and undisturbed land, we have a section below regarding this tour. Thanks also to participant Jan Wood for the shot of the Giant Anteater below from our recent Guyana: Wilderness Paradise tour.

There is great news about the long-awaited reopening of the Asa Wright Nature Centre in Trinidad and Tobago. We are happy to announce that we've got a tour headed to this splendid island nation in late December, led by guide Eric Hynes.

Read what guide Tom Johnson had to say about this tour when we last ran it in 2020:

This tour is a perfect introduction to South America's avian delights without completely overwhelming an unfamiliar birder. We're delighted to have this one back on the schedule.

For more information, please contact our office to hold a spot.

We are excited about a new tour we've recently added to our Southern Africa program. It is our Southern Africa Spectacular: Kruger, Victoria Falls, Zambezi River, and Chobe, guided by none other than African expert Terry Stevenson.

The tour runs from Jul 1-16 and visits South Africa, Zambia, and Botswana. Among the places we'll visit are iconic African destinations, such as Kruger National Park, the Blyde River Canyon, Botswana's Chobe National Park, and Victoria Falls—the latter being one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. We'll stay in comfort (and a bit of luxury!) along the way. And the wildlife? Nothing short of spectacular. The Zambezi and Chobe waterways provide some of the finest birding on the continent in terms of diversity and density. We'll also visit South Africa's great eastern escarpment with its forests and grassland. The southern Africa region is home to nearly 1000 bird species—we expect to see 300 or more of them— and boasts the largest populations of elephant, rhino, and Lion on Earth. In total, we expect more than 50 mammal species, including the "Big 5" (adding Cape Buffalo and Leopard to the three just mentioned). Our game-viewing and birding activities will be conducted from open safari vehicles and flat-hulled boats, both ideal for wildlife viewing. We're confident this tour will be among the travel highlights of a lifetime. If you'd like more information, please contact our office.

Iquitos, in northern Amazonian Peru, sits in the most species-rich sector of the entire Amazon basin. We’ll start with the white-sand forests of Allpahuayo-Mishana, from which Peruvian ornithologist Pepe Alvarez and Bret Whitney recently described four species new to science! We'll then boat down the Amazon itself to three rainforest lodges with excellent trail systems that give us access to várzea (seasonally flooded) forests, extensive terra firme (upland) forests of several types, fabulous canopy access via a long walkway linking emergent tree towers, and also bird-rich islands in the Amazon and lower Napo rivers. The list of possibilities at the many venues we’ll bird is crazy, but here’s a plateful of mouth-watering starters: Black-faced Hawk, Black-banded Crake, Long-tailed Potoo, White-chested Puffbird, Lanceolated Monklet (if you like puffbirds, get ready for fireworks), Pavonine Quetzal, Black-necked Red-Cotinga, Plum-throated and Purple-breasted cotingas, Wire-tailed Manakin, Fulvous and Pearly antshrikes, Hairy-crested and White-plumed antbirds, Reddish-winged Bare-eye, Black Bushbird, Chestnut-belted Gnateater (if you like ant-things, you’re playing the mega-jackpot), Pale-billed Hornero, Orange-fronted Plushcrown, Black-and-white Tody-Tyrant, Orange-eyed Flycatcher, Varzea Thrush, and a host of flashy tanagers. And then there is the grail bird of the tour (or of a lifetime): Nocturnal Curassow! During our 14-day tour starting in late July with Bret and Micah at the helm, the birding will be lively and educational every day, and into many a night, so carve out a couple of weeks in early August for the big, bad, breathtakingly beautiful—and always awesome—Amazon!

Space has just opened up on our June 10 departure for the Rio Roosevelt: Birding the River of Doubt tour, with Bret Whitney guiding. This early-summer birding adventure offers a rare chance to visit several remote areas, foremost among them the Roosevelt itself. We’ll spend a week at a lovely lodge surrounded by untouched forest that stands just as it did when the Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition of 1914 came through to survey the uncharted river. To get an idea of what we’re headed into, read Candice Millard’s The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey, and look at Bret’s great triplists from 2022 and 2021, including some wonderful videos.

We have just one opening remaining on our only 2023—July 4-16—departure for our excellent cruise to the Norwegian Arctic. This is the tour for Polar bears, Walrus, remarkable bird cliffs full of breeding Black-legged Kittiwakes, Black Guillemots, and Thick-billed Murres, plus a visit to a Dovekie colony. Guide John Coons has been leading this tour for more than a decade and brings all that experience aboard. Don't miss out on a chance to join him! Contact our office to sign up.

Many of the triplists from our tours include lively videos taken by guides or participants. By clicking the images above, you can see one at left by guide Doug Gochfeld from our recent Vietnam tour, and another at right by guide Bret Whitney from our Spectacular Southeast Brazil tour. We only go to Vietnam every other year, and there is space available on Vietnam and SE Brazil for our 2024 departures. You can also add you name to the waitlist for our 2023 departure for SE Brazil—spaces do become available regularly.

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!

Our OutBirding subscription series is still going strong. Our latest addition is Caño Negro: Exploring Costa Rica's Northern Border with Tom Johnson. Tom takes us along for a taste of his recent Costa Rica: Birding the Edges tour.

We have made five full videos available free on our YouTube channel. They are marked OutBirding. Check them out, and if you enjoy what you're watching, join us as a subscriber!

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.

Here you'll find a list of all of our tours with space available that are operating now through September. There are some fantastic tours listed below. If you've got flexibility between now and fall, there is sure to be something here that piques your interest. Just contact our office to hold a space or two.

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 Steve Parrish for this shot of the famous and breathtaking Machu Picchu from our Machu Picchu & Abra Malaga, Peru tour.