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Welcome to our July emailing!
Greetings, birding friends! Did you know there's an official period called “the dog days of summer”? There sure is—and we’re right in the thick of it. It all centers around the star Sirius—the Dog Star. Meanwhile, we’re starting to see the faintest hints of fall migration. Some of those high-Arctic shorebirds are already on their way back, and those early-departing songbirds have likely left their breeding grounds.
As for birders migrating with us, we’ve got groups in Papua New Guinea, Ecuador, Kenya, and Arizona—and in just a couple of days, we’ll be heading off to Brazil and Peru.
In this month’s emailing, we’re highlighting a few tours that might pique your interest. First up: a journey to the high-Andean peaks of central Peru, where the scenery will likely rival the bird list. We’ve also got a few Christmastime tours to consider (no decorations or carols, we promise!). There’s still space on our early December Trinidad & Tobago tour—a perfect introduction to the avian wonders of South America. And if you're looking ahead, we have a short list of Asia tours running in the first quarter of next year.
Beyond tours, we’re sharing a couple of interesting recent articles you might enjoy. As always, you’ll also find our regular features: a new Recent Photos Gallery with more than 150 images from 14 tours in 16 countries on four continents (and a whole bunch of islands!). We also have nine new tour reports, a dozen fresh itineraries, and links to a couple of short videos from recent trips. Finally, for the spur-of-the-moment crowd, we’ve included a handy list of tours through year’s end that still have space available.
Many thanks to guide Doug Gochfeld for contributing the striking photo above of a Green-tailed Jacamar, taken during a recent Guyana: Wilderness Paradise tour. We have two departures of this same tour coming up early in the new year: the first begins January 8 and will be guided by Doug, while the second starts February 26 with Marcelo Barreiros at the helm. Space is still available on both departures!
Our thanks as well to participant Kirsten Tucker for the wonderful photo below of a Resplendent Quetzal at a nest cavity, taken on a recent Western Panama tour.
We say it every month, but we genuinely appreciate you taking the time to open and read our email. If a tour catches your eye and you’d like to learn more, just reach out to our office—we’ll be happy to help you get started.
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Join us on our Central Peruvian Endemics: The High Andes tour for some of the most breathtaking high-elevation birding anywhere. Guided by Dan Lane, we’ll start above Lima, where dry mountain slopes might yield Great Inca-Finch, Bronze-tailed Comet, and Rufous-breasted Warbling-Finch. Then it’s off to Huascaran National Park—nearly a million acres of high-Andean wilderness and Polylepis forest— home to Giant Conebill, Tit-like Dacnis, and a wealth of endemics like White-cheeked Cotinga and Plain-tailed Warbling-Finch. We’ll explore the Carpish Mountains and hike into Bosque Unchog, seeking antpittas, Bay-vented Cotinga, the rare and monotypic Pardusco, and the dazzling Golden-backed Mountain-Tanager. We'll also look for the flightless Junin Grebe and venture to Ticlio—at 15,800 feet, the highest road pass in the Americas— for a shot at Diademed Sandpiper-Plover, White-bellied Cinclodes, and Olivaceous Thornbill. The scenery alone is worth the trip—but the birds are next-level. There's no hiding the altitude on this tour; one must consider the amount of activity and time spent at high elevation.
Please contact our office for more information or to sign up.
| | Christmas and New Year's tours | | Want to sneak away for Christmas or New Year's? Looking for a great way to spend the holidays and treat yourself to some amazing birding? If so, have a look below at four tours—on any which we'd love to have you along. | | |
Mexico: Oaxaca Valley, Dec 20-27 with Dan Lane & Jay VanderGaast
Situated in one of Mexico’s most biologically diverse regions, Oaxaca is home to a remarkable number of endemic bird species. The city itself is also a cultural gem, known for its archaeological richness and deep traditions. Our Mexico: Oaxaca Valley tour brings all of this together—expect sightings of up to 20 regional endemics, alongside visits to impressive ruins, and meals that celebrate Oaxaca’s bold, flavorful cuisine. This is an ideal experience for birders, culture buffs, and food lovers alike—even better if you happen to be all three. Visiting Oaxaca at Christmastime comes with a few additional cultural perks: we are there during whimsical and world-famous Noche de Rábanos (Night of the Radishes), a holiday celebration like no other! Also, on Christmas Eve, various groups gather to perform “posadas," a procession of families and friends that provides a nativity scene and then ends at the city’s zocalo (town square) to form a parade before each group returns to its church for the Misa de Gallo (mass of the rooster). It's certain to be an unforgettable Christmas holiday! (Photo above of birders in the Mexican desert by guide Marcelo Barreiros.)
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Holiday Costa Rica: Rancho Naturalista II, Dec 27-Jan 4 with Megan Edwards Crewe & local guide
Set at 3,000 feet in Costa Rica’s Cordillera de Talamanca, Rancho Naturalista is one of the country’s premier birding lodges—known for its warm hospitality, delicious meals, and excellent birding right on the grounds. Mornings often begin with coffee on the balcony and a parade of tropical birds, including snazzy species like Black-crested Coquette and Snowcap (seen here, courtesy of guide Sam Wilson). Trails behind the lodge wind through a private forest reserve where specialties such as Tawny-chested Flycatcher, Zeledon's Antbird, and three manakin species await. We'll also explore cloudforest at Tapanti, lowland rainforest at Centro Manu, and high-elevation habitat at Irazu Volcano in search of Resplendent Quetzal and Fiery-throated Hummingbird. It’s a richly varied birding experience in a truly hospitable setting.
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Panama's Canopy Lodge: El Valle de Anton, Dec 28-Jan 4 with Chris Benesh & local guide
For a short New Year birding getaway, the Canopy Lodge is hard to beat. With cooler temperatures, beautiful forested surroundings, and rich birdlife right on the grounds, it offers a perfect blend of comfort and discovery. We can expect excellent food, warm hospitality, and standout birds like Tody Motmot (pictured here, courtesy of guide Chris Benesh) and Rosy Thrush-Tanager—with a real chance for rarities like Black-crowned Antpitta. As the tour wraps up, we'll visit the Pacific lowlands and the Juan Hombron area as we look for species such as Wattled Jacana, Veraguan Mango, and Sapphire-throated Hummingbird. This tour is a great choice for newer Neotropical birders, seasoned travelers still chasing specialties, or anyone seeking a relaxing trip with top-notch birding.
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Arizona Winter Specialties, Dec 27-Jan 2 with Cory Gregory
Southern Arizona is a wonderful winter birding destination, even after the trogons and hummingbirds have moved on. In their place come wintering finches in the San Rafael Grasslands, bugling Sandhill Cranes in the Sulphur Springs Valley, and a striking mix of raptors soaring over the desert. Uncommon thrashers, Lewis's Woodpeckers, and Mexican vagrants add to the excitement. This short tour explores key hotspots near Phoenix, Tucson, Patagonia, and Sonoita, all from comfortable hotels. It's the perfect escape for a rich and varied winter birding experience. (Photo of birders during a Florida Canyon hike, courtesy of guide Cory Gregory.)
For more information about a tour, or to reserve a space, please contact our office.
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If tropical birds and a touch of comfort are your thing, you’ll want to keep Trinidad & Tobago in mind. “T&T” offers an ideal introduction to Neotropical birding, with an impressive range of tropical families like toucans, manakins, antbirds, and cotingas. From the fantastic display of a White-bearded Manakin to the haunting call of a Bearded Bellbird—or the eerie experience of visiting cave-dwelling Oilbirds—the birding is exciting and unforgettable. There's even a chance that we'll find the elusive Trinidad Piping-Guan. Micah Riegner guides our next tour, which runs December 1-10 and is based primarily at the legendary Asa Wright Nature Centre—freshly renovated and better than ever. The birding from the veranda at Asa Wright is as rewarding as the myriad forest trails beyond. We’ll also visit Caroni Swamp to witness flocks of spectacular Scarlet Ibis glowing against the mangroves at dusk (as depicted above, courtesy of participant Doug Clarke), and a bit of island-hopping gets us to Tobago for a different set of specialties, including White-tailed Sabrewing, nesting Red-billed Tropicbirds, and Blue-backed Manakin.
Please contact our office for more information or to sign up.
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For those who are looking a little farther afield and ahead, here is just a quick mention of our Asia tours departing January through April, each with at least two spaces available (unless noted):
(Photo of Scaly-breasted Partridge by group member Sid England from last February's Cambodia tour.)
Please contact our office for more information or to sign up.
| | Two recent, interesting articles | | |
Here are a couple of articles about birds that caught our eye recently. The first highlights new ways researchers are using eBird data to track bird population trends at a much finer scale than ever before. Tens of millions of birder-submitted checklists have been paired with sophisticated data analysis, resulting in a level of precision never before available. While the findings are largely sobering (spoiler alert: we're losing lots of birds), conservationists now have powerful new tools they believe could be game-changing.
The second article introduces AviList, "a unified global checklist of birds that provides the most current and authoritative taxonomy of birds around the world." That’s right—the major global bird checklists have come together to create a single entity: AviList. Their list includes 11,131 species, 2376 genera, 252 families, and 46 orders. The article explores how this unified list came to be, why it matters, and provides a link if you’d like to explore it for yourself.
(Photo credit: Blue-crowned Hanging-Parrot, by Borneo tour participant Linnet Tse.)
| | Short videos from recent tours | | |
Many of our tour reports contain highlight videos from the tour that might showcase the birds, other wildlife, the scenery, the culture, or any combination thereof.
Our first video is a highlights clip from our BIRDS OF BRITAIN tour, courtesy of guide Megan Edwards Crewe. Click here or on the European Stonechat below to watch the video (photo by participant Steve Rannels).
The second clip is a little bit different. We're joining guide Bret Whitney as he and his group take a charter flight to the beautiful Rio Roosevelt and get settled into the pousada during our recent BRAZIL'S RIO ROOSEVELT: BIRDING THE RIVER OF DOUBT tour. You can view this video by clicking here or on the Paca below.
| | 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. | | |
“The tour experience was excellent. This particular trip had a great mix of nature and local culture, which I appreciated enormously. The birds were fabulous, and the guides—Chris Benesh, Marcelo Barreiros, and Alex Sundvall—were superb at finding the birds. All three guides were superb in their field skills, knowledge, and support. I would gladly travel with any of them again. Field Guides demonstrated to me that it is a high-quality, professional organization. The overall service from tour manager Nicole Cannon was excellent. I truly felt taken care of. Kudos to the entire staff. I will happily use Field Guides again and recommend it to others. Thanks for a great trip with great people and great birds!” J.K., Mexico: Oaxaca Valley I, 2025
“Our tour experience was excellent, as always. We travel with Field Guides whenever possible. Our guide, Jesse Fagan, is amazing. I believe his knowledge of the birds, birding areas, locations, and locals is universally acknowledged. His people skills are unmatched. I've seen it so many times. When we travel with Jesse, we always know that whatever the travel gods throw in our path, he will handle it. It's an unmatched feeling of birding excellence and travel safety. The service of the tour manager and your office staff was excellent, as always. Thank you for making it so easy!” B.W., Mexico: Oaxaca Valley II, 2024
| | Tours with openings through year's end | | Each month we list in this section the Field Guides departures over the next five months that still have at least two spaces available (unless otherwise noted). | | |
Cajun country is a major rice-growing region and a vital wintering ground for prairie and taiga pothole breeders like ducks, geese, bitterns, Sedge Wrens, LeConte's Sparrows, and elusive Yellow Rails. Our Louisiana: Yellow Rails & Crawfish Tails tour delivers you right into the thick of it. Thanks to the rice harvest schedule, your chances of seeing a Yellow Rail—flushed from cover by combines—may be better here than anywhere else. In addition to the marsh birds, the hedgerows can hold vagrants, sparrows, or other surprises. We’ll also explore coastal marshes, beaches, and search for migrants and wintering birds. The nearby pine woods are home to southern specialties like Red-cockaded Woodpecker and Bachman’s Sparrow. Along with your binoculars, you'll want to bring your appetite, as the food’s just as great as the birds! (Photo of a Yellow Rail, courtesy of tour participant Andrew Kenny.)
SOUTH AMERICA
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Rio Negro Paradise: Manaus, Brazil, Sep 13-28 with Marcelo Barreiros & Bret Whitney (1 space)
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Safari Brazil: The Pantanal & More, Sep 20-Oct 5 with Marcelo Padua
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Central Peruvian Endemics: The High Andes, Oct 4-20 with Dan Lane
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NEW TOUR! Bolivia's Lowland Lodges: Blue-throated Macaws & Beyond, Oct 5-18 with Micah Riegner
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Spectacular Southeast Brazil (Part I), Oct 17- Nov 3 with Bret Whitney & Marcelo Barreiros
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Antarctica, South Georgia, & the Falklands, Oct 20- Nov 12 with Doug Gochfeld
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Brazil: Atlantic Forest Getaway, Oct 23-Nov 2 with Marcelo Padua (1 space)
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Spectacular Southeast Brazil (Part II), Nov 1-14 with Bret Whitney & Marcelo Barreiros
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Chile: The Classic Tour, Nov 3-23 with Willy Perez & local guide (1 space)
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Trinidad & Tobago I, Dec 1-10 with Micah Riegner
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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