Madagascar Comprehensive IV 2013

Our three-week Comprehensive Madagascar birding and wildlife tours kick off in the little-known deciduous woodlands of the northwest. Here we will search for such specials as White-breasted Mesite, the stunning Schlegel’s Asity and Van Dam’s Vanga. Endangered waterbirds we may encounter include Madagascar Fish-Eagle, Bernier’s Teal and Madagascar Sacred Ibis. We continue our tour through the bird-rich sites of Perinet and Mantadia National Park in the eastern rainforest zone, searching for exotic birds including Madagascar Ibis, Madagascar Wood Rail, Red-breasted Coua, Velvet Asity, Nuthatch Vanga and Brown Emutail. We usually succeed in obtaining scope views of all four forest ground rollers, sometimes achieved during one glorious day! The unforgettable song of the Indri drifts through these forests, and we will take time out to find a family group of these, the largest extant lemur species. Our coverage of the eastern rainforests of Madagascar also includes Ranomafana NP, where we stand a chance for Golden and Greater Bamboo Lemurs, Yellow-bellied Sunbird-Asity and Brown Mesite.

We later travel south via the Tolkenesque Isalo NP (for Benson’s Rock Thrush) and Zombitse Forest (for Appert’s Tetraka), to the astonishing Spiny Desert around Ifaty. Nowhere in the world looks anything like this region of bulbous baobabs and weird spiny pinnacles, with its plethora of peculiar endemics. Whilst here, we will also visit the specialized coral rag scrub of the southwest, home to the recently discovered Red-shouldered Vanga. Other targets include Long-tailed Ground Roller, Sub-desert Mesite, Madagascar Plover, Thamnornis and Sickle-billed Vanga. Our final days on this incredible island will be spent enjoying the natural riches of Berenty, most famous of Madagascar’s lemur reserves, before we reluctantly return to a more normal world!

Besides the birds we experience up to 27 lemurs (including the world-famous dancing sifakas), other mammals from civets to strange tenrecs (the planet’s most primitive mammals), dozens of species of chameleons, cryptic leaf-tailed geckos and other bizarre reptiles and amphibians, and even some of the world’s most outlandish insects (such as the celebrated Giraffe-necked Weevil)!

Join us for a truly comprehensive birding and wildlife tour of this otherworldly land!

Please note: these prices are subject to foreign exchange fluctuations.

This tour falls within our 7 Continents Promotion, which means that if you register for the promotion you will qualify for a discount off the price of this tour! For further details on this fantastic offer, click on this link.