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Updated
16 March 2024


Birdfinders is now affiliated with Natural History Book Shop

To search through their superb selection of books click below


Birdfinders slideshow

Welcome to Birdfinders, one of Britain's most successful birdwatching holiday companies: run by birders for birders. We've been in business since 1993 and have been growing and adding to our birdwatching tours list every year since. We offer exceptional value birdwatching holidays to locations around the world, so stop wishing, start packing!


TELEPHONE COMMUNICATIONS. Sadly, we don't seem to be able to do anything about the large number of junk calls we are receiving, ranging from double-glazing, bitcoin to just attempted frauds. It is likely that when we are away that our answerphone will be filled within a couple of days so we advise you to use email as your first line of communications.


Bristle-thighed Curlew, Alaska

Amid the stunning scenery of Alaska we will look for many speciality birds including Bristle-thighed Curlew, Kittlitz’s and Ancient Murrelets, Horned and Tufted Puffins, Slaty-backed Gull, Aleutian Tern, Varied Thrush and Golden-crowned Sparrow, plus Grizzly Bear. The pre-tour extension will concentrate on finding Spectacled Eider and Snowy Owl; the post-tour extension will focus on Rock Sandpiper and a whole suite of Bering Sea seabirds.


Greater Rhea, Pantanal, Brazil

Join us in June on our superb trip to the Pantanal in Brazil, a wetland region encompassing the world's largest tropical wetland and the world's largest flooded grassland. It is a truly fantatsic place for birdlife.


Cape Rockjumper

In late August 2024 Birdfinders will be visiting the birding hotspot of the cape of South Africa. 25 possible South African endemics including Cape Rockjumper, Cape Sugarbird and larks galore plus a further 37 southern African endemics and a pelagic for southern ocean seabirds.


Latest tour news New tour reports

Birdfinders was founded by Vaughan Ashby in 1993 and has been growing ever since. Recent years have seen amazing growth despite the world economic downturn. We run excellent value and well priced tours to locations around the world and get a lot of repeat business from satisfied customers as well as new customers joining us after they discover what good value Birdfinders is and how good and bird-filled our tours are.

With Birdfinders you get:

At Birdfinders we cater to all levels of ability and enthusiasm is more important than knowledge as our experienced leaders are always on hand to assist. Although all of our birdwatching holidays and birdwatching tours are designed specifically for finding birds, we stop wherever possible for other forms of wildlife and previous tour participants have been able to combine birds with their interests in mammals, butterflies, plants, insects etc. Furthermore, whilst the very nature of birdwatching dictates some early-morning starts to ensure that we see as many species as possible, we can frequently arrange for participants to take time off to relax or sightsee, providing that does not conflict with the itinerary of the tour.

All participants in Birdfinders tours will receive, in advance of the tour, a copy of a previous tour report (where available) or, a few weeks after returning, a copy of the current tour report (if a new tour). To keep costs down tour reports are not originated every year. However, currently we have over 220 tour reports, in pdf format, available on our website. We also have a list of photos from our tours – now nearly 9000 images!

Participants also receive in advance a blank daily bird checklist for the tour, together with an information letter detailing helpful advice such as health requirements, what to bring, recommended reading, etc. At the end of each tour, a feedback form is provided so that tours can constantly be improved.

We can also arrange customised tours to selected countries. See our Custom Tours page or contact us. Also, keep an eye on our Future Tours page to see where we're planning on going to next.

We look forward to welcoming you on one of our tours in the near future.

Vaughan and Svetlana Ashby and the Birdfinders team

Ornithological Society of the Middle East logo Neotropical Bird Club logo

Birdfinders is a Corporate Member of the Ornithological Society of the Middle East. Many of our tours visit countries in the OSME region: Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel in Spring, Kazakhstan, UAE and Uzbekistan. Join Birdfinders on one of our bird-filled tours in this exciting region.

Birdfinders has become a Corporate Sponsor of the Neotropical Bird Club. We have 19 tours to the neotropical area of Central and South America and the Caribbean. Join Birdfinders on one of our fantastic trips to this bird-filled part of the world.

FLIGHT PRICES 

Birdfinders is one of the few bird tour companies including flights with all of its tours and we are pleased to advise you that we will continue to include flights going forward. Because of the unpredictability of flight costs for future tours however, unfortunately, we will have to reserve the right to pass on potential additional flight costs to you. When international flights return to anything resembling normality, some predict that costs will rise due to reduced availability; others predict that, initially at least, costs will fall to encourage us back into the air. At this stage, we simply don’t know which of these predictions will come to pass. We have therefore had to estimate the flight costs for all of our 2023-2024 tours. If the actual cost of the flights is more than 25% higher than our estimate, you will have the option to pay the additional cost or withdraw from the tour without penalty. Equally, if we secure the flights for 25% or more below our estimated price, we will deduct the difference from your final invoice. We believe that this is the fairest way to operate all of our tours from now until the end of 2024, when we will hopefully have a clearer idea of “the new normal” for flight prices. Also, if you book late for a tour, it is likely that you will need to pay a flight supplement as prices generally tend to increase nearer to departure.

WHAT'S IN THE SLIDESHOW?

Click here for the species in our slideshow


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ATOL PROTECTION

All the flights and flight-inclusive holidays on this website are financially protected by the ATOL scheme. When you pay you will be supplied with an ATOL Certificate. Please ask for it and check to ensure that everything you booked (flights, hotels and other services) is listed on it. Please see our booking conditions for further information or for more information about financial protection and the ATOL Certificate go to: www.atol.org.uk/ATOLCertificate


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BIRDFINDERS RECOMMENDS ZEISS OPTICS

Victory HT

Birdwatcher's Yearbook 2024 cover

The Birdwatcher's Yearbook 2024 – from Calluna Books, the Dorset-based business owned by Neil Gartshore, a leader for Birdfinders.


Great Tit

Why not make your own bottle bird feeder? How to do it is at bottlestore.com.


The Birds of Pamirs, Hissar, Alai and Tien Shan book cover

A superb new book from our friend Sergei A. Toropov The Birds of Pamirs, Hissar, Alai and Tien Shan. Vol. 1. Non-passerines. Part 1


Jankowski's Bunting

Help save the critically endangered Jankowski's Bunting – donate here. Birdfinders will be donating £5 for every client booked on any of our China tours in 2013 and future years. Birdfinders' donations to this vital appeal now stand at over £4900!


LATEST NEWS FROM THE WORLD LAND TRUST

Birdfinders and our clients have now contributed £55,995 to the World Land Trust for environmental projects and in doing so have balanced the equivalent of over 1880 tonnes of GHG emissions. And we have good news – the money donated by Birdfinders and raised through Birdfinders' tour participants has helped save the endangered Clarke’s Weaver, Sokoke Scops-owl (below) and Golden-rumped Elephant Shrew, all resident in Kenya's threatened Sokoke woodland. Click here for details.

Sokoke Scops-owl

Click here to see how you can help support this important work. Click here to view our latest certificate presented to us by the World Land Trust.