The Indian Ocean Islands delivered an exceptional journey across Seychelles, Rodrigues, Mauritius and Reunion with remarkable scenery, rare birds and some of the world’s most inspiring conservation success stories. Our tour enjoyed superb views of nearly every endemic species, along with one of the scarcest seabirds on Earth.

Seychelles offered an awesome start, producing Madagascar Turtle Dove, Seychelles Blue Pigeon, White Tern, White-tailed Tropicbird, Seychelles Bulbul, Seychelles Sunbird and the critically endangered Seychelles White-eye. Evening outings brought Seychelles Kestrel perched at its roost and eventually a Seychelles Scops Owl. On Cousin Island, participants were surrounded by seabirds including Bridled and White Tern, noddies, Wedge-tailed Shearwater and Great Frigatebird, while species such as Seychelles Magpie Robin, Seychelles Warbler and Seychelles Fody showed effortlessly at close range. La Digue provided excellent views of the striking Seychelles Paradise Flycatcher with males sporting long tail streamers.

Rodrigues, remote and little visited, delivered Rodrigues Warbler and Rodrigues Fody in the Grand Montagne reserve, together with soaring Rodrigues Flying Fox. The group also recorded Asian House Shrew around the hotel gardens.

Mauritius brought a powerful sequence of endemics that have been rescued from the brink, including superb encounters with Pink Pigeon, Mauritius Fody and Mauritius Olive White-eye on Ile aux Aigrettes. Further forest birding produced Mauritius Bulbul, Echo Parakeet, Mascarene Martin, Mascarene Swiftlet, Mauritius Cuckooshrike and Mascarene Paradise Flycatcher along with repeat views of Pink Pigeon sunning itself near the trail. A confiding Mauritius Kestrel offered an especially memorable moment.

Reunion provided one of the tour’s greatest highlights. Only minutes into the pelagic, an all black petrel materialised, confirmed as Mascarene Petrel, a species seen by very few birders worldwide. The outing also produced Barau’s Petrel, Tropical, Wedge-tailed and Flesh-footed Shearwaters, Sooty Tern, Brown and Lesser Noddy, plus Spinner Dolphins. Belouve Forest the next day yielded excellent looks at Reunion Bulbul, Reunion Stonechat, Reunion Grey White-eye, Mascarene Paradise Flycatcher and Reunion Olive White-eye. A striking adult Reunion Harrier patrolling the valley completed the island’s impressive list.

Across seven islands our group recorded 75 species including 28 endemics, alongside once in a lifetime encounters such as Mascarene Petrel and the inspiring recovery stories of species like Pink Pigeon, Mauritius Kestrel and Seychelles Magpie Robin. A beautifully paced tour through some of the most exquisite and biodiverse islands on the planet.

We then headed into one of the most unique and interesting countries I have had the pleasure to explore – the Sultanate of Oman. Oman has a way of surprising people, which has as much to do with stereotypes and relative ignorance of Eastern Arabia, as anything the country has done. However, renegotiating oil contracts to provide free education through college, free healthcare, and an enviable minimum living wage for its citizens is certainly novel and intriguing. Also protecting cultural heritage and traditions of the various native tribes and more ancient societies that called its territory home over the past two centuries has had a remarkable impact as well. The streets are wide, clean and orderly. The people are friendly and welcoming. We were invited to no fewer than five dinners by complete strangers during our time touring the country. The food and service  is  fantastic, and the country has among the lowest crime rates on Earth. In short, Oman is simply a fabulous place to visit, and that’s not even accounting for the diverse and stunning landscapes, diverse flora and fauna, and effortless travel. We spent 9 joyous days in Oman and could’ve had another 9!

The birding highlights were numerous and we kicked things off with two difficult species – Sykes’s Warbler and Pallas’s Gull. The Hajar Mountains, rising to over 13000 feet in elevation, trap enough moisture to be lightly wooded above 9000 feet and this area was our focus for some great night birding where we heard Omani Owl and had great views of Pallid Scops Owl, Eurasian Nightjar, Pharoah Eagle Owl, and the uber-rare Blanford’s Fox.

Our time high up the mountains at Jabal Akhdar produced great views of the monotypic Streaked Scrub Warbler, which is a family unto its own. We then headed across the desert visiting several ‘green’ spots on route. Rarities like White-breasted Waterhen and Hume’s Warbler were found and we also had amazing views of some target residents like Cream-colored Courser, Greater Short-toed Lark, and Asian Desert Warbler. A hot tip then saw us enjoying an amazing sighting of six Egyptian Nightjars congregating at a site in Maqshin plus a single Sykes’s Nightjar, an extremely rare bird for the area.

Other top highlights during the tour included Grey Hypocolius, another monotypic family, the endangered Sociable Lapwing, Little Crake, Bimaculated Lark, Turkestan Short-toed Lark, hundreds of Greater Short-toed Larks, Greater Hoopoe Lark, Bar-tailed Lark, Desert Lark, Black-crowned Sparrow-Larks, Arabian and Steppe Grey Shrikes, Spotted and Crowned Sandgrouse, Arabian Grosbeak, Arabian Warbler, Arabian Wheatear, Arabian Eagle Owl, Arabian Scops Owl, Desert Owl, Forbes-Watson’s Swift, Yemen Serin, Ruppell’s Weavers, Tristram’s Starling, Short-toed Snake Eagle, and the gorgeous Nile Valley Sunbird. We also had high numbers of Booted, Steppe, Imperial, Greater Spotted, and Bonelli’s Eagles on the tour! A pelagic trip was also a great success with Sooty Gulls, Persian Shearwaters, a Flesh-footed Shearwater, Jouanin’s Petrel, and an 11th hour Swinhoe’s Storm Petrel! Vagrants are always a wonderful and unexpected highlight of a trip to Oman, and we enjoyed some amazing species this year. Common Cuckoo, Yellow-browed Warbler, Oman’s 6th record of Common Hawk Cuckoo, Bay-backed Shrike, Medium Egret, Oman’s 3rd Fulvous Whistling-Duck, Small Pratincole, Watercock and an immature Yellow Bittern!

Our most recent webinar was Mongolia by Nigel Redman. This spectacular overview covers one of Asia’s most unique birding and wildlife destinations. Next year we will continue to feature a wonderful selection of destinations so look out for our notifications.

If you missed a webinar or simply want to revisit the destination all of our webinars are uploaded to YouTube shortly after completion. Feel free to browse through some of our most recent webinars here.

This October Rockjumper’s Founder Adam Riley, together with a group of friends and fellow Rockjumper Tour Leaders David Hoddinott and Tuomas Seimola visited the ultra-diverse region of NE Brazil. Famous for its vast array of mega specials and rare endemics their trip produced an extraordinary variety of the regions very best and most beautiful birds. If you haven’t had the opportunity to visit NE Brazil yet we couldn’t recommend it more highly.

Boa Nova is a birding paradise with an incredible habitat variety and as is almost always the case in NE Brazil, many rare and endangered species. We thoroughly enjoyed the hummingbird gardens where Ruby Topaz, while rather widespread, stole the show with amazing views. We also nailed the endemic Stripe-breasted Starthroat and several others like Swallow-tailed hummingbird, Sapphire-spangled Emerald and Planalto Hermit. The range-restricted Slender Antbird is one of the regions flagship species for conservation and we enjoyed excellent views while other highlights from the area included Narrow-billed Antwren, Small-billed Tinamou, White-bibbed Antbird, Three-toed Jacamar, Wied’s Tyrant-Manakin and Atlantic Black-throated Trogon. Further south and east we enjoyed many additional Atlantic Rainforest specials like Swallow-tailed Cotinga, White-eared and Golden-capped Parakeets, Pink-legged Gravateiro, White-winged Cotinga (David Hoddinott’s 7000th species!), Yellow-faced Siskin and Brazilian Tanager.

We were also treated to another of NE Brazil’s most gorgeous and rare species, the Banded Cotinga. This stunning bird is sadly critically endangered due to habitat loss however our tours to the area have an excellent track record for finding it. Serra Bonita then produced some more fine specials with the still undescribed ‘Bahia’ Treehunter, Spot-billed Toucanet, Red-necked Tanager, Brown Tinamou and Black-throated Grosbeak all being highlights.’

Our final site on the tour was near Porto Seguro which yielded several more top-class species such as Hook-billed Hermit, Black-capped Screech Owl and Black-headed Berryeater. In total we recorded 520 species but the ultimate goal was finding the rare endemics and did they ever deliver!

André Bernon – Usambara Hyliota

We saw many fantastic birds on our Tanzania Mega tour a few months ago. A highlight and my bird of the year is this Usambara Hyliota. We searched hard but on our third day, we found a stunning male, in full morning sunlight! An extremely tough and very localised species.

Lisle Gwynn – Marquesan Monarch

Almost everything in the Marquesas is difficult to get to, but Marquesan Monarch is among the toughest. Requirements? A big boat, a small boat, a jump and a swim before a hike to the top of the island through arid scrub and sites of ancient celestial navigation. A chronically rare black, tonic purple and ivory billed beauty is the reward.

Alexander Alvarado – Grey-breasted Mountain Toucan

After enjoying the huge diversity of Hacienda El Bosque in Manizales we added this gorgeous Grey-breasted Mountain Toucan which we couldn’t stop watching for over an hour, all participants got this prized moment just before leaving the area. Colombia provided unforgettable experiences to our group but this is into the more memorables!

Bobby Wilcox  – White-bellied Seedsnipe & Dwarf Sperm Whale

Bird of the year would have to be the White-bellied Seedsnipe on my Patagonia tour. Most of the group courageously trekked most of the way, but only a few of us made the last climb over steep rocky slopes to find this mega that I’ve been searching for years to no avail, getting amazing looks as it slowly pecked its way through the low vegetation mats and grass clumps.

My favorite tour moment was on my recent Galapagos tour when a distant jumping cetacean was spotted. I quickly zeroed in on it with my camera and fired off a few shots over the course of successive jumps. Only later during photo review did I realize we had something really cool, which was confirmed as Dwarf Sperm Whale by numerous cetacean experts, a quite rare creature rarely seen alive, most often found washed up dead on a beach.

Clayton Burne – Collared Flycatcher

Rarities in the middle of the austral winter aren’t typically on anyone’s bingo card. So, the news of a mega Collared Flycatcher being found the prior evening at a remote border outpost before weighed heavily at the next morning’s coffee time. It was the middle of the week, there was work to be done – we’d plan to go down on the weekend… Though not a globally rare species, its core range in Central Europe and patchy wintering grounds in Zambia and Malawi had kept it off my personal life list. The prospect of a lifer for the year was equally enticing, it had been a slow year with the only new addition being a heard White-winged Flufftail.

Whilst I was scratching around the plate trying to plan a suitable day in the future for a twitch, Meg decided we should swing from the heels, right now. A 20 minute flurry of activity saw all the gear, dogs and humans in the truck and on our way to the Drakensberg foothills, several hours drive away.

A small bunch of fellow twitchers were already in place by the time we arrived, so it only took a few minutes for the little fellow to show, though a little longer to show well. Photos in the bag and another successful twitch that even the dogs could lay claim to.

Daniel Danckwerts – Blue Bird-of-paradise

This year’s Bird of the Year is unequivocally the Blue Bird-of-Paradise, considered by many to be the most beautiful bird in the world. I led back-to-back tours in Papua New Guinea in July, and we enjoyed multiple encounters with this wondrous species across both tours. Our best sighting involved a pre-dawn start and a steep hike guided only by torchlight. We arrived at its calling post, soaked from the early morning dew, and the anxious minutes ticked by. After no less than two hours, we accepted defeat and made our way back down the same trail with our heads hanging low.

I was relieved when some of my guests asked if we could try again, which we did the following day. Another pre-dawn start, another steep hike up, this time in the rain, and just as all odds seemed against us, the splendiferous male appeared in all his glory, cued perfectly at sunrise. We watched him call for close to ten minutes before he disappeared as quickly as he had arrived. The memory of this encounter remains one of my all-time top birding highlights!

Greg de Klerk – Plains-wanderer

I recently made the decision to try and find all the world’s bird families and I had the opportunity to add the monotypic Plains-wanderer to my list when I led the Australia East Coast tour in September.

This incredible species, the sole member of the Pedionomidae family, is primarily crepuscular but it is easiest to find at night. Inhabiting the short stubby grasslands of the Australian interior, their small quail-like posture and behavior allows them to hide expertly behind grass tussocks making them challenging to find.

Armed with infrared scopes, a full moon, our flashlight and cameras, we wondered off into the grasslands, meandering between dense grass tussocks when suddenly a striking female stepped into the open less than five meters from us and provided amazing and prolonged views. Just when we thought the night couldn’t get better, a male joined the fray, at one point running over my shoe after having sat next to one of my guests who was down on his haunches. WHAT AN EXPERIENCE! What an awesome bird.

Adam Walleyn – Luzon Bleeding Heart

This year’s Philippines tour was one of my most memorable Rockjumper tours. Well known for some challenging birding, this year’s tour went amazingly well with difficult bird after difficult bird showing well for our enthusiastic group. While birding in the Sierra Madres in an area with few if any previous bleeding heart records I almost jokingly played the call of the Bleeding Heart while we were waiting for a Bicol Ground Warbler to show itself. A few minutes later Simon announced that it was walking right up to us. I thought he was talking about the ground warbler and my jaw hit the floor when a Luzon Bleeding Heart walked right up to the group and then perched below us showing off its spectacular bleeding heart, an amazing moment for us stunned observers.

Amanda Guercio – Light-mantled Albatross

Bird highlight would have to be Light-mantled Albatross on Flock to Marion, and a tour highlight would be watching two Sclater’s Crowned-Pigeons at eye level drinking from the river near Kwatu in PNG.

Ryan Tyrer – Red-crested Korhaan

It is always difficult to choose a bird or a sighting of the year, especially when you as a guide are afforded the opportunity to do a lot of travelling during the course of that year.

Sometimes we might visit the same locations on more than one occasion and more often than not we will see the same birds over and over.

But every so often we see something that we don’t usually see. In this scenario it was watching a male and female Red-crested Korhaan in a courtship display. Or rather a male displaying for a seemingly uninterested female.

Red-crested Korhaan get their name from their brilliant red crest but unfortunately it is only seen in a scene like this, when they raise it in an attempt to attract a mate.

It was early one morning and we were driving the dusty roads of Etosha National Park in Namibia and we stumbled upon this sighting. The male had his crest raised and was revving around this female making the best attempt he could at seducing her. His attempts though appeared too aggressive for her liking and he was chasing her in and out of the bushes, across the road this way and that. I don’t think the angry face he carried was helping his cause either! She eventually ran far away enough for him to realise his attempts would be in vain.

This photo that goes with it is not your usual shot as we can not see the bird’s face but the backlight lit crest was showing so brilliantly it was hard not to snap off a few pictures. The scene that unfolded before us made the picture even more special and this has to go down as my bird and tour sighting of the year.

Glen Valentine – Gould’s Shortwing

This is always a fun but tough decision! My top bird of the year for 2025 was no easy task with the likes of Spotted Thrush-babbler, Dybowski’s Twinspot, White-necked and Grey-necked Rockfowl, Blyth’s Tragopan, Mishmi Wren-babbler, Grandala, Rusty-bellied Shortwing, Cachar Wedge-billed Babbler, Bornean Peacock-Pheasant, Bristlehead, Rail-babbler, Hose’s Broadbill, Dulit Frogmouth, Geomalia, Minahassa Masked Owl, Wilson’s Bird-of-paradise, Moluccan Woodcock and Thick-billed Ground Pigeon all making the short list!

However, pride of place eventually had to go to one of my most wanted birds in all of Asia, the once mythical and impossible-to-see Gould’s Shortwing. This “Himalayan Jewel” winters in the densest, wettest, mid-elevation oak-rhododendron forests of Bhutan, North-east India and Yunnan and breeds above the treeline in rocky, bushy alpine habitat in Nepal, Bhutan and southern China. Previously, one of the Himalayas’ mystery birds, this species was recently found to be fairly regular and even somewhat numerous in the heart of the remote Mishmi Hills in extreme north-eastern India during winter and spring, an area that has only very recently become accessible.

During our comprehensive tour of North-east India earlier this year in April/May, we managed to track down this little understory forest gem, several males of which showed sublimely for the entire group. A very special and memorable experience indeed!

Julain Parsons – Geomalia

The bird that truly set my heart racing this year must have been hearing an Invisible Rail (Gallirallus wallacii), a near mythical bird endemic to the dense, shadowy undergrowth of Indonesian island of Halmahera. It was a painful and bittersweet experience as it aptly lived up to its ghostly name, lurking mere feet from our hide, incessantly calling as if to tease us. With my year’s most sought-after bird skulking just out of sight, another rarely seen Indonesian endemic captured my heart. The Geomalia. Although not much to look as, the Geomalia is a rare and range-restricted thrush species endemic to the montane forests of Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Keith Valentine – Scaly Ground Roller

A fun year overall but with all my guiding time spent visiting old stomping grounds, the volume of lifers was significantly down! Still, it was a memorable year with return visits to two personal favourites of mine – India and Madagascar, both of which I visited for the first time 20 years ago. Both produced some fabulous species, including many wonderful mammals, but I think bird of the year has to go to one of my all-time favourites, the Scaly Ground Roller. This was one of my most-wanted species when I first visited back in 2005 and once again this year produced brilliant sightings. A cryptically plumaged under-story forest skulker views like this of Scaly Ground Roller are aways a treat.

Mark Beevers – African Wild Dog & Araripe Manakin

Bird of the year Araripe Manakin something else I’d longed to see, don’t ask me why, I just remember the story of it being discovered and wanted to see it for myself.

My highlight of the year has got to be the two packs of wild dog in Kruger pre Marion tour, something I’ve always wanted to see. It was an amazing few days, we logged 238 species with 13 write ins plus 30 mammals including two packs of wild dogs (10 each), big five seen one day and recorded the following day but lion only heard, four leopards, 7 white rhino,12 lion, the list goes on, very happy clients and I got a lifer in dusky lark. Awesome place.

Nigel Redman – White-bellied Heron & Satyr Tragopan

Another year draws to a close and once again there were many highlights. After considering a lot of candidates, my bird of the year was White-bellied Heron, seen in Bhutan in April. It was my only lifer on that Bhutan tour, and a much sought-after species having missed it previously. White-bellied Heron is the second largest heron in the world and the rarest. It is estimated that only 45 individuals remain, with about half of them in Bhutan. This iconic species requires undisturbed forest alongside major rivers in the eastern Himalayan foothills, a habitat that is increasingly scarce and under threat in the heavily populated Indian subcontinent. We searched long and hard for it in several prime locations, and eventually we found this obliging individual close to the river. Although a bit far for photos with conventional cameras, I did manage a digi-scoped record shot of it.

Paul Varney – Chestnut-headed Tesia & Mascarene Petrel

Choosing your favourite bird and tour moment of the year is really tough and 2025 is a particular challenge as I have been lucky to have enjoyed seeing so many amazing birds and experienced some incredible moments.

I’ve been lucky to lead tours to Thailand, Iceland, the tropical islands of the Indian Ocean and the plains and forests of East Africa.

Some of my favourite birds of the year were point blank views of Nicobar Pigeon on the Similan islands off Thailand, common but stunning looking Vulturine Guineafowl in Kenya and beautifully marked Harlequin Ducks in Iceland. My favourite bird of the year though is a toss up between 2 very different species. First, the ghostly elegance of a male Pallid Harrier quartering the savannah of Tarangire NP in Tanzania, but this is eclipsed by the incredible views of the shy and skulking Chestnut-headed Tesia on our Thailand tour back in February.

As for moments, 2 really stand out. One just last month, again in Tarangire NP when a night drive produced unbelievable close views of Aardvark. We had already seen East African Spring Hare but Aardvark is a really special animal to see. The best moment of 2025 however was on a pelagic trip out of Reunion in the Indian Ocean when we became one of a tiny group of people to see a Mascarene Petrel at sea. Although distant we got decent views and even photos which allowed confident identification of this ultra rare seabird. 2025 was amazing and 2026 is already shaping up to be pretty memorable too.

Stephan Lorenz – Inti Tnager

In 2025, I traveled to ten countries across four continents, including Rockjumper tours in India, Bhutan, Indonesia, Bolivia, and Kenya, as well as undertaking some personal travels. I was fortunate enough to see nearly 3,500 species in 2025, and with such an incredibly diverse year, it was a challenge to select a Bird of the Year. Some of the runner-ups included the rare Wattled Curassow on an island near Leticia, Colombia, the impressive Heuglin’s Bustard on the savanna of Kenya, the monotypic Hylocitrea in Lore Lindu, Sulawesi, the difficult Flores Scops-Owl in Indonesia, the Unicolored Thrush in Bolivia, likely the rarest bird of the year, and many more. In the end, the bird of the year for me was the incomparable Inti Tanager seen well during my Rockjumper Bolivia Remote Extension with a fantastic group of longtime guests. The migratory Inti Tanager was first sighted by ornithologists on its wintering grounds in southeast Peru in 2000, and it took another 11 years before the discovery of its breeding grounds in a remote corner of northwestern Bolivia in the Machariapo and Tuichi Valleys. This part of Bolivia remains remote and only accessible via a rugged dirt track that crosses the Andes before dropping into the arid valleys around Apolo. It took us two days and about 20 hours of driving to reach the small town of Apolo. From there, it was another three hours of driving along rough dirt roads to reach the deciduous tropical forest where the Inti Tanagers nest. It was early October, and there was some uncertainty about whether the tanagers had arrived in numbers on their territories. After a bumpy drive in the dark, we finally arrived at the start of the valley after sunrise. We exited the two four-wheel drive vehicles and began walking along the dirt track that descended into the valley with tall and dense tropical deciduous forest blanketing the narrow valley. Within minutes, we got a response and heard the loud and cheerful notes of an Inti Tanagers emanate from the trees below us. A few moments later, an Inti Tanager flew in and offered several brief but clear views. We celebrated all around, and during the remainder of the morning, we discovered at least one more individual Inti Tanager further along the road that offered lengthy views. It took another two full days to return to La Paz, where we again celebrated our grand success.

Rob Williams – Araripe Manakin

2025 has been a year of great birds for me and choosing a favourite is always hard. But there was a bird I had been waiting to see since I first read of it in the 1998 paper that described it. The Araripe Manakin is confined to a 300km2 area of forested escarpment with a world population estimated at around 800 birds; it is one of Brazil’s rarest and most range-restricted birds, being classified as Critically Endangered due to its small and still declining population. I had been close to its range in 1997 before it was described, and I had long-wanted to get there and see this stunning bird.

On the north-east Brazil Mega tour in September we enjoyed finding at least three birds and getting great views of an adult male that repeatedly returned to the same fruiting Cecropia tree. It lived up to over 20 years of expectation, but I still can’t wait to see it again on next year’s tour.

Erik Forsyth – Black Stilt

My bird of the year is the Black Stilt. Critically endangered and endemic there are less than 200 of these stunners in the wild! Every August about 60-75 captive bred juveniles are released into the Tasman River Delta to supplement a small population.
It was a tense drive from our hotel to the Tasman River Delta. My guests were unaware of my worry that we really need to find the species here as it can be very difficult to find at other water bodies. We arrived and headed out onto the floodplain and to my relief I spotted an adult standing 300m off on a small wet area. What a relief! We approached cautiously and eventually we were within 30m of this stunner. While enjoying this occasion, it walked up to within 5m of us and then strode off…Fantastic! It was a bitter-sweet moment as I know the serious situation this species is facing, as many captive bred birds probably succumb to the very harsh conditions in the delta as well as feral cats, rats and hedgehogs eating their eggs.

Lev Frid – Scarlet-banded Barbet

With such a full year of fantastic birds and places, to choose just one is an impossible! One of the standout birding moments for me this year was in northern Peru, close to the small town of Plataforma. Our intrepid Rockjumper group, after a long drive, a tough hike mostly through knee-deep mud, and a nail-biting wait, were rewarded with great views of one of South America’s most range-restricted and newly-discovered birds – the Scarlet-banded Barbet. This spectacular barbet was only described to science in 2000. After waiting for a while at a favourite tree, a pair of barbets gave great views alongside Gilded and Versicoloured Barbets, and a host of others. An unforgettable moment, and a great adventure and story to boot!

One of them, the mythical Night Parrot, was believed possibly extinct (although happily was rediscovered in 2013 in a remote part of Queensland to which access, even to this day is not permitted: it remains one of the most highly desired birds in the world). The other – Red Goshawk – is an extremely rare and elusive forest raptor, found at low density across the northern third of Australia. We spent weeks looking for it in suitable habitat without success. Frustratingly, we once visited a known nest but the birds were absent and thus Red Goshawk became the only bird we missed in Australia.

Several years after we returned to the UK, a birding friend discovered a Red Goshawk nest that was accessible near Kakadu National Park. The nest remained active for many years but work and other commitments meant we never had the opportunity to return to Australia during that time. After the nest was abandoned I feared I had missed my only chance of seeing the species. Things took a turn for the better around 2010 when information about a regular nest site on Cape York Peninsula gradually circulated into the birding scene. I was determined we were going to see these birds, come what may. However, the logistics of getting to the nest area were against us. For many years, hire car companies in Cairns explicitly forbade driving their vehicles – even fully equipped four wheel drives – up Cape York Peninsula. In recent years, the Queensland Government came to my rescue by gradually building a bitumen road running up the Peninsula that is now fully gazetted and thus hire car accessible.

In October 2025, I was cruising the Banda Sea, visiting various islands to see their endemic birds, afterwards visiting Java and Bali. The short hop to Cairns and the chance to see Red Goshawk was too tempting to miss. On 20th October, I flew into Cairns, met Sarah who had flown out to meet me, picked up our hire car and bought supplies for the trip up Cape York. After several hours at the wheel, we arrived in Laura and camped for the night. The following day we set off early towards the pin location where a friend had said the goshawks should be nesting. The last few kilometers of the drive passed slowly. I could feel the anticipation and tension rising in me. Would the birds be in their usual tree? Had the nest been successful this year? Would the young already have fledged and left the area? As we approached the appointed pin to learn our birding fate, I was nervous to say the least. A vehicle was already parked at the site. Inside was a German birder who asked if we’d come to see the Red Goshawks. He pointed – there’s the female and the two chicks near the nest. I felt a huge wave of relief sweep over me. It had taken more than 30 years, but finally I’d got there: Red Goshawk.

Both chicks were fully fledged and in pristine deep red juvenile plumage while the female’s plumage was heavily worn from the toil of incubation and chick rearing, but nevertheless showed the unmistakable red coloration of this rare species. Over the next two hours we watched the birds, which seemed oblivious to our presence. The female tore up a prey item and fed it to each chick in turn, while later they flew to the adjacent trees and called to one another. I was spellbound.

We revisited the following day. The birds were still present, but to our surprise, the flimsy looking nest had fallen out of the tree and was now on the ground. Had we cut things incredibly fine and jammed Red Goshawk on our last gasp chance? Only time will tell, but fingers crossed they will rebuild the nest in 2026 and once again make the dreams of visiting birders come true.

Stu Elsom – Magellanic Woodpecker

Bird of the year has to be Chile’s flagship species, the magnificent Magellanic Woodpecker. Early morning we were treated to incredible views of a family party feeding and calling. A huge and impressive species with the male sporting a bright red head whilst the female shows a wholly black head with a curled crest. These were very impressive birds indeed and are the largest extant woodpecker in the New World! It’s hardly surprising that Magellanic Woodpecker was voted the joint bird of the trip by the group!

Stratton Hatfield – Quail Plover

I think my bird of the year has to be the Quail Plover I saw in Tsavo West in June. It’s an extremely unpredictable species in Kenya and was at the top of my most-wanted list for the country. This one was just a few meters from me and froze as I approached, allowing me to photograph it through gaps in the dry grass. A very memorable encounter with a bizarre and little-known species.