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Greetings, birding friends! Welcome to our March emailing!
If this winter has felt especially long, you’re not alone. Much of the country has been digging out from heavy snow and scraping windshields each morning. But the balance is shifting. Daylight now lingers a little later each evening, frogs are tuning up, the equinox is just ahead, and crocuses and swelling buds on trees won’t be far behind. Have you checked your local woodcock spot yet? With these changes come the familiar lift in birdsong and the first stirrings of migration—all reminders that the seasons (mostly) keep good time.
For birders, this turning of the season carries its own kind of anticipation. It’s when field guides migrate from shelves back to car seats and optics get cleaned. Spring is also when many of us begin looking beyond our own backyards and thinking about where the birds might lead us next. Whether it’s a long-anticipated international journey or a well-timed domestic escape, now is an excellent time to put plans in motion.
Speaking of birding tours, our guides and participants are currently spread widely. We have groups exploring Ecuador, Guyana, Jamaica, and Oaxaca, as well as Chiapas on an inaugural run of a new Mexico itinerary. Another group is in Kenya and Tanzania on our East Africa Highlights tour. While winter lingers here, birding rolls on elsewhere. If you’re ready to join in, we hope the tours below provide just the nudge you need.
In this month’s emailing, we’re announcing a new-ish tour to Costa Rica—a summer variation on one of our stalwart itineraries. We’re also featuring a pair of domestic tours to Florida and Arizona, along with two tours to Peru. You’ll find a link to our Conservation Support page if you’d like to see where our donations were directed this year. As always, we’ve included our monthly Recent Photos gallery, with about 125 images from tours to all seven continents. We also have eight reports from recent tours, 14 fresh itineraries, two new trip videos, and a list of departures over the next six months that still have space available.
Many thanks to tour participant Shelly Kirn for the photo above of our group at Las Guacamayas, Guatemala, from our recently concluded Guatemala: Shade-grown Birding, guided by Jesse Fagan (who is sitting front and center).
Our thanks as well to guide Tarry Butcher for the photo below of a Hubbard's Sportive Lemur during last year's Madagascar tour.
| | New departure: Costa Rica in summer | | |
Our new summer departure to Costa Rica (June 22–July 7) offers a fresh seasonal take on our classic itinerary, guided by Chris Benesh and outstanding local expert Vernon Campos. Timed for peak activity in the highlands and foothills, this tour explores one of the richest birding destinations in the Americas with comfortable travel and excellent infrastructure throughout.
Though smaller than West Virginia, Costa Rica boasts more than 850 bird species, thanks to its remarkable range of habitats and its role as a land bridge between North and South America. The country’s avifauna reflects that heritage, with dazzling representatives of Neotropical families including hummingbirds, motmots, trogons, antbirds, manakins, cotingas, toucans, and wrens.
From the Caribbean foothills of Braulio Carrillo and Rancho Naturalista to the famed La Selva Biological Station, we’ll seek specialties such as Snowcap (pictured above), Great Green Macaw, Snowy Cotinga, and Lanceolated Monklet. In the highlands, Monteverde and Cerro de la Muerte host Resplendent Quetzal, Three-wattled Bellbird, Coppery-headed Emerald, Fiery-throated Hummingbird, and Volcano Junco. The Pacific lowlands around Carara add Fiery-billed Aracari, Baird’s Trogon, Orange-collared Manakin, and Turquoise-browed Motmot. Sampling nearly all of Costa Rica’s major habitats, this new summer tour promises an exciting cross section of the country’s extraordinary birdlife.
Please contact our office for more information or to sign up.
| | Two spring domestic tours | | |
If spring finds you eager to travel—but not necessarily across oceans—these two domestic departures offer remarkable birding in landscapes that feel anything but ordinary. From subtropical wetlands and coral islands to high desert plateaus and the Grand Canyon’s rim, both tours combine peak-season activity with some of America’s most iconic protected lands.
Spring is simply one of the most rewarding times to bird Florida, when transient migrants and resident specialists share the same landscapes. Migrants stream north through coastal hammocks and island oases just as resident breeders reach full throat.
In the south we’ll search for tropical specialties at the very edge of their U.S. range—Mangrove Cuckoo, White-crowned Pigeon, Antillean Nighthawk, and Black-whiskered Vireo—before venturing west across the Everglades’ wetlands for Snail Kite, Limpkin, and woodpeckers of the longleaf pine.
The exclamation point is a day at Dry Tortugas National Park. The crossing itself can produce Audubon’s Shearwater and tropicbirds, but once at Fort Jefferson the scene turns electric: vast colonies of Sooty Terns and Brown Noddies swirling overhead, Magnificent Frigatebirds adrift on stiff wings, and the possibility of rarer Caribbean strays. It is a seabird spectacle on a scale rarely matched in North America.
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Based in Flagstaff’s cool ponderosa pines, this tour explores the remarkable ecological crossroads of the Colorado Plateau. Within short drives we move between red rock canyons, high mountain forests, and open pinyon-juniper slopes, encountering a blend of Rocky Mountain, Great Basin, and southwestern species. Red-faced Warbler and Painted Redstart share the region with Clark’s Nutcracker, Dusky Flycatcher, and Pinyon Jay, while Oak Creek Canyon and the San Francisco Peaks add further diversity. A visit to Grand Canyon National Park provides both sweeping scenery and a genuine conservation success story: the chance to watch California Condors riding thermals above the abyss.
For more information about either of the above tours, please contact our office and we'll be happy to assist.
(Top photo of the group in Florida by guide Doug Gochfeld. Bottom photo of a Grace's Warbler by participant Phil Lessner.)
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This June we offer two distinct Peru adventures—each guided by Dan Lane, with Jesse Fagan joining Dan in the north—and together they showcase just how dramatically the Andes can change from one region to another.
Peru's Magnetic North: Spatuletails, Owlet Lodge & More (June 13–25), led by Dan Lane and Peru-based Jesse Fagan, immerses us in the lush east-slope Andes of Abra Patricia. With six nights at Owlet Lodge, this is an in-depth exploration of one of the most exciting endemic hotspots in South America. Northern Peru is famed for its concentration of range-restricted species, and we’ll focus on hummingbirds, antpittas, wood-wrens, tanagers, and others found almost nowhere else—Royal Sunangel, Yellow-scarfed Tanager, Lulu’s Tody-Tyrant, Chestnut-crested Cotinga, and the incomparable Marvelous Spatuletail. We’ll also devote time to the mythical Long-whiskered Owlet in pristine cloudforest that remains refreshingly uncrowded.
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A week later, Machu Picchu & Abra Malaga, Peru (June 24–July 3), guided by Dan Lane, shifts south to combine cultural grandeur with high-Andean specialties. Two nights near Machu Picchu allow a relaxed visit to the iconic Inca citadel while birding subtropical slopes alive with hummingbirds, tanagers, Andean Cock-of-the-rock, and endemic Inca Wrens. From there we ascend to the dramatic Vilcanota range and Abra Malaga, where puna grasslands and temperate forest harbor a different suite of Peruvian endemics—Bearded Mountaineer, White-tufted Sunbeam, Junin Canastero, Diademed Tapaculo, and Golden-collared Tanager among them.
Operated back-to-back, these tours can be combined for a comprehensive journey from Peru’s endemic-rich north to the storied heights of the south.
For more information, please contact our office and we'll be happy to assist.
(Top photo of the group birding in Peru by participant Lina Sjogren. Bottom photo of Machu Picchu courtesy of participant Randy Pinkston.)
| | 2025 Conservation Support Report | | |
As an international birding and ecotourism company, Field Guides understands how essential healthy ecosystems are to the well-being of our planet and to the survival of countless species. For many years, we have made annual financial contributions to organizations dedicated to protecting habitats and conserving biodiversity around the world. Among the groups we have supported are BirdLife International, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, BirdsCaribbean, and the American Bird Conservancy, along with others carrying out vital work on behalf of wildlife and wild places.
We invite you to visit our Conservation Support page to view an updated report on the contributions Field Guides made in 2025 and to learn more about the meaningful efforts these organizations are advancing.
| | Short videos from recent tours | | |
Many of our tour reports now include highlight videos featuring birds, wildlife, scenery, culture—or some blend of it all.
The first is a great video full of birds and bird song from part two of our Spectacular Southeast Brazil tour, operated last November, and guided by Bret Whitney. Click here or on the Eared Pygmy-Tyrant below to see the video. (Photo by participant Francois Grenon.)
The second video comes from our recent Mexico: Enchanted Chiapas tour, guided by Micah Riegner & Jorge Montejo-Diaz. Micah cobbled together a short highlight reel of the tour. Click here or on the Rose-bellied Bunting below to view. (Photo by participant Bill Byers.)
| | Field Guides merch is available! We've got shirts, hats, hoodies, mugs, stickers, tote bags, and more—all a click away at our Field Guides Store. Fashionable and functional—sure to keep you comfortable and looking spiffy—check it all out at the store. | | Reports from recent tours | | We have annotated and illustrated reports from recently completed tours linked below, each with some lovely images and some with video clips, and all with great texts by our guides. Enjoy! | | Comments from participants | | |
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 two representative recent comments. From all of us at Field Guides, our thanks for all your valuable feedback.
“This was an outstanding tour—one of the very best birding trips I’ve ever taken. Tarry Butcher and Jesse Fagan were the ‘dream team.’ They worked seamlessly together to get everyone on the birds quickly and made sure each of us saw what we encountered. Tarry went above and beyond every evening completing eBird checklists for us, even editing his photos and inserting them while we were still on the trip. He knows hidden birding spots off the map, speaks the language, understands the unspoken customs of the country, and knows all the chip notes. It doesn’t get much better than that! Jesse is a steady leadership force with tremendous experience—we are always in good hands with him. Field Guides leaders are exceptional people: respectful and supportive. I would absolutely travel with Tarry and Jesse again.” J.B., South Africa, 2025
We’ve had many successful tours with Field Guides, so we always check your offerings first. We chose the Dakotas because we’d never been to either state—and because Cory Gregory was the guide. He spoke so enthusiastically about the tour when we were with him in Arizona that we signed up shortly after returning home. Our overall experience was great. We came with a list of target birds and saw them all, plus several equally interesting surprises. Cory is a natural educator with a wide-ranging curiosity about the natural world. He sought out locations likely to present diverse species and took time to point out key field marks to distinguish similar birds, which really helped me remember first-time species. He also shared tips for birding by ear and made sure everyone saw their targets and had time at the scope. He’s good company and fun to be with. As always, Nicole Cannon and the office staff were very helpful and pleasant to work with. We would definitely travel with Cory again.” K.L., Birding the Dakotas: Prairies, Black Hills, & Badlands, 2025
| | Tours with openings through August | | Each month we list in this section the Field Guides departures over the next six months that still have at least two spaces available (unless otherwise noted). | | |
Alaska: No Place Like Nome, June 24-July 1 with Sam Wilson (only one space left). Spend a full week birding one of the subarctic’s most celebrated hotspots. On our spring Alaska tours, Nome is always a highlight—and we never seem to stay long enough. This itinerary devotes an entire week to the Seward Peninsula, allowing us to explore the Nome-Teller, Kougarok, and Council roads in depth and linger with both migrants and breeders. We’ll target classic Nome specialties such as Bristle-thighed Curlew, Arctic Loon, Aleutian Tern, and even Muskox, while scanning Safety Sound and the Nome River mouth for Emperor Goose, Red-necked Stint, and the ever-present possibility of Asian vagrants. From rocky montane shorebirds to spruce-forest grouse, the diversity here is remarkable. (Photo of a Bluethroat by guide Chris Benesh.)
SOUTH AMERICA
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Rainforest & Savanna: Alta Floresta & the Northern Pantanal, Brazil, Jun 10-25 with Marcelo Barreiros (1 space)
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Galapagos: An Intimate Look at Darwin's Islands I, Jun 13-23 with Mitch Lysinger
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Peru's Magnetic North: Spatuletails, Owlet Lodge & More, Jun 13-25 with Dan Lane & Jesse Fagan
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Brazil's Rio Roosevelt: Birding the River of Doubt, Jun 13-28 with Bret Whitney
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Machu Picchu & Abra Malaga, Peru, Jun 24-Jul 3 with Dan Lane
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Jaguar Spotting in Brazil: Pantanal & Garden of the Amazon, Jul 4-15 with Marcelo Barreiros (1 space)
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Galapagos: An Intimate Look at Darwin's Islands II, Jul 11-21 with Willy Perez
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Cloudforests of Ecuador: All the Best of the Wild Northwest, Jul 20-30 with Willy Perez
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Peruvian Rainforests of the Tambopata: Macaw Lick Extraordinaire, Jul 20-30 with Dan Lane
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Mountains of Manu, Peru, Jul 30-Aug 10 with Jesse Fagan & local guide
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Brazil's Japura & Tefe Rivers: Mamiraua, Amana & the Unkwown, Jul 30-Aug 12 with Bret Whitney & Micah Riegner (1 space)
NORTH AMERICA
MIDDLE AMERICA & WEST INDIES
AFRICA
EUROPE
ASIA & AUSTRALASIA
To learn more about any of these tours or to hold a space, please contact our office.
| | Recently posted upcoming itineraries | | 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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