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India - Western: Desert Specials

© Demoiselle cranes by Adam Riley
India - Western: Desert Specials 2026

16 Feb 2026 - 28 Feb 2026 (13 days)

USD4,695 1 SPACE AVAILABLE

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Tour Leader: Dušan Brinkhuizen

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Tour Price (Per person): USD4,695 (GBP3,610 * EUR4,121 * AUD7,235)

Single Supplement: USD720 (GBP554 * EUR632 * AUD1,110)

Flight costs: USD280 (GBP215 * EUR246 * AUD431)

This tour pairs with: India - Western: Forest Owlet Extension 2026

India - Western: Desert Specials 2027

16 Feb 2027 - 28 Feb 2027 (13 days)

USD4,800 SPACES AVAILABLE

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Tour Leader: Erik Forsyth

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Tour Price (Per person): USD4,800 (GBP3,691 * EUR4,213 * AUD7,397)

Flight costs: USD310 (GBP238 * EUR272 * AUD478)

Pricing notes : *Prices are estimated, and dates may change*

India - Western: Desert Specials 2028

15 Feb 2028 - 27 Feb 2028 (13 days)

USD4,900 SPACES AVAILABLE

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Tour Leader: Nigel Redman

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Tour Price (Per person): USD4,900 (GBP3,768 * EUR4,301 * AUD7,551)

Pricing notes : *Prices are estimated, and dates may change*

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.

Top Birds

Grey Hypocolius, Great Indian & Macqueen’s Bustards, huge numbers of Demoiselle, Common & Sarus Cranes, Dalmation & Spot-billed Pelican, Green Avadavat, Indian Spotted Creeper, 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, 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, Rufous-fronted Prinia, Eastern Orphean, Asian Desert Warbler and Striolated Bunting.

Top Mammals

Asiatic Wild Ass, Asiatic Lion, Blackbuck, Nilgai, Chinkara (Indian Gazelle), with chances for Golden Jackal, Bengal and the desert subspecies of Red Fox, Striped Hyena, Wolf, Jungle Cat and Wild Cat

Habitats Covered

semi-desert scrub, salt-flats, seasonal wetlands, grassland, scrubland, dry deciduous forest, coastline

Expected Climate

warm during the day, with cooler nights and cold mornings

Max Group Size

8 with 1 Rockjumper leader & local birding leader

Tour Pace & Walking

mostly relaxed with some longer drives

Accommodation

mostly good, basic but comfortable around Zainabad

Ease of Birding

mostly unchallenging

Photographic Opportunities

very good

What our clients say about us

Robert Williams
PR, India 2023

As usual another fantastic journey masterfully organized and enabling us to discover places and birds in the best possible way. Supreme guide, all matters perfect, except the lack of heating in the bus. Chilly India, believe it or not !

Peter Kaestner
JR, India 2020

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.

David Hoddinott
CH, India 2018

David Hoddinott is simply outstanding: Calm, focused, truly excellent knowledge of the birds, their calls and habits. He has a wonderful sense of humour, too.

Nigel Redman
MC, India 2023

This was the first group birding tour Ive ever taken (meaning, more than myself and either one or two other persons). Rockjumper and Nigel Redman made it a very pleasurable experience, with wonderful birds, beautiful landscapes, and good flexibility and adaptability to the various challenges and obstacles thrown our way on the trip. I heartily recommend both this tour and Nigel Redman as a tour leader! I would happily go on any tour for which Nigel was the leader; his knowledge of ornithology, history, and birding folklore is encycylopedic, and his easy humor and casual nature made for happy hours in our vehicles or over dinner tables (this, in contrast to the group next to us in some of the dining halls, where hardly a word was spoken by any tour member when the trip leader was going through the days list; that was a dictatorship; Nigels tour was a democracy in many ways.)

Glen Valentine
DH - India 2024

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.

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