Spain has long been a very popular birdwatching destination, offering a wide range of Mediterranean habitats along with safe, easy and excellent birding. Many sites are in beautifully scenic settings, featuring Romanesque architecture and ancient, fortified hilltop villages; whilst much of interior Spain that we visit is very rural and way off the tourist trail. Our itinerary is specially designed for a great diversity of birds and concentrates on two major and distinct habitats: the semi-arid steppes and cork-oak dehesas (a type of wooded pastureland) of the central and northern interior and the Guadalquivir River with its associated wetlands and marshes feeding into the Gulf of Cádiz on the Atlantic Ocean. Top birds included White-headed and Marbled Ducks, Spanish Imperial and Bonelli’s Eagles, Little and Great Bustards, Eurasian Eagle-Owl, Azure-winged Magpie and Black-bellied Sandgrouse.
The other major aspect of this tour is the wine and food, which will be extremely interesting and varied. Spain’s wine-making tradition spans more than 2000 years and the country is producing wines of increasingly good quality. There are several excellent reds that we will get to enjoy and these days a few fabulous whites are also being made with traditional Spanish grapes.
Our tour ends in the beautiful Sierra de Andújar where time will be spent exploring this wonderful region in search of the most endangered feline on the planet – Iberian Lynx. We travel in spacious and comfortable vehicles; the food is delicious and plentiful; while our accommodations are extremely well-appointed and nestled in quiet and charming villages. A trip for those who love birds, amazing locations and the fine things in life!
Client Testimonials
Tour price (Per person): EUR4,450 * USD5,037 * GBP3,775 * AUD7,072
Single Supplement: EUR520 * USD589 * GBP441 * AUD826
Tour price (Per person): EUR4,595 * USD5,202 * GBP3,898 * AUD7,302
Rob Williams was a fantastic guide -- "Everything's under control!" He is absolutely superb at bird identification. Rob has a great sense of humor, and a wonderful relationship with the innkeepers and vendors along our way. Yeray Seminario, our guide on the Gibraltar Extension, is a treasure! He is soft-spoken, easy-going, approachable, and incredibly knowledgeable about birds. I was delighted to learn that he is an eBird moderator for Spain. He directed us to several great restaurants in the Tarifa area. Alberto Bueno is a sweetheart! He is so classically Spanish and so passionate about the birds. Except for myself (!), I think he was the most enthusiastic about EVERY bird we saw. He is a delightful guide -- compassionate, generous and fun. He and Rob made an unbeatable team and got along seamlessly. We saw well over 250 species of birds, enjoyed fantastic scenery, food and wine! It was a very good trip, and my thanks go to Rob, Yeray and Alberto for all their hard work.
Guides Rob Williams & Alberto Bueno were professional, diligent and hardworking throughout the tour, maintaining their sense of humour and pleasant demeanour to the end; their respective birding competence was impeccable and, more importantly, they functioned as a team without issue or conflict, complimenting each other in a manner which quite enhanced the trip.
I enjoyed the tour and was especially pleased with our tour leader, Rob Williams, and both local guides, who were excellent and very adept at finding our target birds as well as managing all the logistics required by a trip of this nature. This was my first Rockjumper birding tour and the tour exceeded my expectations.
Everything was very good. We certainly tried for everything. Great that we had the time to look at reptiles, frogs, etc. I certainly got almost all my major targets.
We had a wonderful tour in Spain. It was so nice that our guide, Rob, could speak Spanish. We saw many more species and lifers than we expected to. We would love to do another trip with him.