ASIA  

Whether it is the mists rising off the glassy surface of the Kinabatangan River with gibbons wailing in the background, or snow-lined peaks rising above Balang Shan, Asia is truly inspiring and offers innumerable treats to birders. Electric blue Grandalas standing in snow, Golden Pheasants sneaking through bamboo scrub, or massive flocks of Helmeted, Rhinoceros, and Great Hornbills wolfing down fruits at a giant fig are all unforgettable memories. However, it is hard to beat the astonishing pittas, particularly with their bright and colorful plumages that simply glow in the dark recesses of the forest floor. These birding treats are often enhanced with Buddhist temples, Moghul palaces, tom yum soup, or a casual Cantonese style dim sum dinner.

Our assortment of Asia trips is as diverse as it is exciting. Our regular offerings to the sophisticated and rapidly developing countries of Thailand and Malaysia are among our most popular tours. This is hardly surprising given the fantastic combination of high altitude, lowland, and mangrove forest birding on offer. In combination with legendary Borneo, this is a birding wonderland. The region is comparatively well developed making these amazing wildernesses both easily accessible and comfortable. We stay in impressive lodges perched on the edges of ox-bow lakes, with barbets, trogons, and leafbirds jostling in the canopy of towering Banyan trees, often visible from the comfort of lodge balconies. Our tours take in some of the best parts of these dwindling wilderness areas as we search for typical Asian gems such as elegant pheasants, rowdy laughingthrushes, amazing trogons, sneaky wren-babblers, sprightly sunbirds, and technicolor broadbills.

With an archipelago of over 7000 islands it is no great surprise that the Philippines is loaded with endemics. Few other places on earth can compete with these islands for number of localized specialties. Many of the birds here are just mind-blowing, including the sapphire-spangled Palawan Peacock-Pheasant, and the immense, and incredibly rare, Monkey-eating Eagle. The unique nature of these islands is emphasized by some of the world’s strangest bird names like Balicassiao, Coleto, and Guaiabero. In the only Catholic country in Asia, these peculiar birds are set against a backdrop of towns with an old austere Spanish architecture, and the result is an intoxicating mixture of the familiar and the distinctive.

For those of you drawn to the Indian subcontinent, we offer two tours to India. The new Asia Introtour combines endemic-hunting in the western Ghats with effortless coastal birding in Goa. While our northern India trip combines superb wetland, dry country, and Himalayan foothill birding with virtually guaranteed Tigers, and a dab of culture at the Taj Mahal. We are also expanding and refining our offerings in China. This immense country offers so much, but it is hard to beat our flagship Sichuan and Tibetan Plateau trip that offers a bevy of pheasants including the amazing Chinese Monal, the incomparable White Eared-Pheasant, and the breathtaking Temminck’s Tragopan. However, it will now be possible to combine this back-to-back with our new tour to Beidaihe, China, Asia’s greatest migrant trap. Around this town, thrushes, robins, and warblers hop around your feet, and thousands of shorebirds are sprinkled along the coast, making for an unforgettable adventure.