The wonderfully diverse nation of India is well-known for its verdant landscapes and the snow-capped Himalayas. It therefore surprises many people to learn that India is also blessed with some incredible deserts, and our tour showcases this much-underrated habitat by exploring some of India’s less frequented parks and reserves in the county’s dry, western parts. Desert National Park, Tal Chappar and the Great and Little Ranns of Kutch are amongst the most important of the protected areas of western India and we will visit all of them. We will also pay a visit to the more verdant Mt Abu along with an extension to the deciduous forests of Tansa Reserve.
Along the way we are going to see some of the most threatened and rare birds not only of India but of the whole world. Species we are searching for include the Great Indian Bustard which sadly teeters on the brink of extinction, the almost equally rare White-browed Bush Chat, along with Indian Spotted Creeper, Yellow-eyed Pigeon, Green Avadavat, Sociable Lapwing, Macqueen’s Bustard, White-naped Tit, Marshall’s Iora, and for those doing the extension the recently rediscovered Forest Owlet. We also stand a great chance at picking up two of the more difficult monotypic families in the world, namely Crab-Plover and Grey Hypocolius. The general birding is excellent with lots of breeding specialties supplemented by vast numbers of overwintering northern migrants including famous congregations of cranes, impressive flocks of waterfowl and waders and a number of interesting passerines. Mammals are yet another interesting feature of this trip and along the way we can expect to see Blackbuck, Indian Gazelle and Indian Wild Ass amongst others.
Grey Hypocolius, Great Indian & Macqueen’s Bustards, huge numbers of Demoiselle Cranes, Common & Sarus Cranes, Dalmation & Spot-billed Pelican, Sociable Lapwing, Crab-plover, Broad-billed Sandpiper, Indian Courser, Red-headed, Cinereous & White-rumped Vultures, Eastern Imperial Eagle, White-eyed Buzzard, Laggar Falcon, Merlin, Jungle Bush & Rock Bush Quails, Yellow-legged & Barred Buttonquails, Black Francolin, Painted, Spotted & Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, Short-eared Owl, Sykes’s & Savanna Nightjars, White-naped & Indian Black-lored Tits, Marshall’s Iora, Brown Rock Chat, Pied & White-browed Bush Chats, Bimaculated, Rufous-tailed & Sykes’s Larks, Indian Bush Lark, Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark, Desert Whitethroat, Bay-backed Shrike, Graceful & Rufous-fronted Prinias, Eastern Orphean, Asian Desert Warbler and Striolated Bunting.
Asiatic Wild Ass, Asiatic Lion, Blackbuck, Nilgai, with chances for Golden Jackal, Indian and the desert subspecies of Red Fox, Striped Hyena, Grey Wolf, Jungle Cat and Wild Cat
semi-desert scrub, salt-flats, seasonal wetlands, grassland, scrubland, dry deciduous forest, coastline
warm during the day, with cooler nights and cold mornings
8 with 1 Rockjumper leader & local birding leader
mostly relaxed with some longer drives
mostly good, basic but comfortable around Zainabad
mostly unchallenging
very good
I just have to write and tell you how much I enjoyed the N. India trip and how superb the leaders are… Erik and Rich worked so well together and both are so funny, such a great combination…. With much gratitude to RBT for bringing birds and mammals into my life.
We had a wonderful trip with Rich Lindie and Stephan Lorenz, and we would certainly be happy to travel with either of them again. They were both excellent with the birds, had a great sense of humour, and were helpful and patient when individuals required extra assistance. In addition to the birding, we enjoyed a long list of mammals sighted in the various national parks. The accommodations and meals were also very good.
We had a great tour. It was smaller even than usual, as two of the participants departed after two days due to illness. Glen, was as always his uber-keen birder, cheerful self. His magic pulled out quite a few surprising sightings.
We really enjoyed both tours. The leader, Stephan Lorenz, was very helpful and worked hard to make the birding trips a success. We appreciated the local guides on both trips as well. They were all very good at getting the job done and making it all enjoyable and seamless. We always feel we are in good hands when we go on a Rockjumper tour.
This trip was great! We were told the trip should generate about 250 bird species and our total was very close. Peter was excellent at finding birds, leading us and keeping a positive group atmosphere. The local guides also were competent and helpful. Accommodations are not an important aspect of a trip to me but the ones we stayed at were excellent, as were the meals. The trip was an excellent introduction to India for me tho I was happy to have it very much concentrate on birding.
17 Feb 2025 - 01 Mar 2025 (13 days)
USD4,495 - Spaces Available
Tour Leader: André Bernon
Tour price (Per person): USD4,495 * GBP3,578 * EUR4,172 * AUD6,784
Single Supplement: USD640 * GBP509 * EUR594 * AUD966
Flight costs: USD280 * GBP223 * EUR260 * AUD423
Can be linked with: India - Forest Owlet Extension 2025
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India - Northern: Birds & Tigers 2023 - December 2023
India - Assam Birding & Big Game Extension II 2023 - April 2023
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India - Assam Birding & Big Game Extension I 2023 - March 2023
India - Northern: Birds & Tigers (Small Group) 2023 - January 2023
India - Western: Forest Owlet Extension 2023 - January 2023
India - Western: Desert Specials 2023 - January 2023
India - Southern: Birding & Wildlife of the Western Ghats (Small Group) 2023 - January 2023
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India - Northern: Birds & Tigers (Small Group) 2020 - February 2020
India - Southern: Birding & Wildlife of the Western Ghats (Small Group) 2020 - January 2020
India - Highlights of the North 2019 - December 2019
India - Northern: Birds & Tigers 2019 - December 2019
India - Highlights of the North 2018 - December 2018
India - Southern: Birding & Wildlife of the Western Ghats II 2018 - November 2018
India - Andaman Islands Endemics 2018 - November 2018
India - Southern: Birding & Wildlife of the Western Ghats I 2018 - January 2018