Birding Calendar
Trip Codes address daily focus, required energy levels, and common goals for a tour•.
[Style – A] Comfortable and enjoyable for EVERYONE with an interest in nature, even if birds are not a top priority.
[Style – B] Comfortable and enjoyable for BIRD WATCHERS — but each participant must enjoy daily bird watching.
[Style – C] Enjoyable for anyone with a KEEN INTEREST IN SEEING NEW BIRDS; requires a high level of energy for birding all-day.
* Codes help prospective participants to understand the daily intensity, and the variety of activities for each tour style tour
2023 – 2025
JANUARY 15th – 26th, 2023
SOUTH KOREA – An Extravaganza of Cranes & Waterfowl
A focused Birding Tour for those that have ‘dreamed’ of seeing large numbers of cranes and waterbirds (and doing so with a number of Life Birds). We should see at least six species of cranes and such wonderful waterfowl as Swan Goose, Lesser White-fronted Goose, Baikal Teal, Stegnejer’s White-winged Scoter, and Scaly-sided Merganser. We also expect Hazel Grouse, Solitary Snipe, Relict Gull, Daurian Jackdaw, & Pallas’ Rosefinch.
Tour Style [C] $4,495/pp. (discount for couples sharing a bed)
Tour Checklist – Birds Seen: https://ebird.org/tripreport/103319st
APRIL 26th – MAY 10th, 2023
GEORGIA & ARMENIA (Classic Spring Birding)
Georgia is a member of the NATO-run Partnership for Peace. It’s people practice the Eastern Orthodox Religion [The country takes its name from St. George, its patron]. It is famous for unique breads, candies, and wines. Expect to see wild countryside, towering mountains, and lovely cities blanketed in churches and monasteries. WE WILL TARGET – Caspian and Caucasian Snowcock, and Caucasian Black Grouse, nine species of falcons, and twenty-four species of raptors, Radde’s Accentor, Upcher’s and Menetries’s warblers, White-winged Redstart, Finsch’s Wheatear, Eastern Rock Nuthatch, Wallcreeper, & Fire-fronted Serin.
Tour Style [B] Price $4,695/pp
Tour Checklist – Birds Seen: https://ebird.org/tripreport/124476 List
2023 – 2024
September 10th – 24th, 2023
PORTUGAL – Mainland and two endemic rich Atlantic islands
Portugal is a country filled with welcoming people… distances are not great, Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra, and the Douro Valley are all within a few hours drive of one another. The Altantic islands hold a half dozen endemics, and will be a driving force for our efforts while there. This trip will take advantage of excellent fall weather, hospitality around the wine producing culture, and the enthusiasm of the two lively cities of Lisbon and Porto.
Tour Style: Heritage-Style — A
Tour Checklist – Birds Seen: https://ebird.org/tripreport/161638Wait List
Tour Price: $6,995/pp sharing double room
Azores Bullfinch
February 20th – 27th, 2024
PUERTO RICO- 30 endemics to be seen a single Caribbean islands
AOU just added another island endemic – Puerto Rican Euphonia. The island is the furthest eastward of the big four Caribbean Islands, and it best combined with the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles. [The tour uses the Northern Lesser Antilles Tour as a linchpin that allows one to go home with an additonal 30 endemics by including the week long extension].
Tour Format: TARGET BIRDING DAILY
Tour Style: [C]
Tour Checklist – Birds Seen: https://ebird.org/tripreport/207916W
Tour Price: $3,395/pp Sharing
February 10th – 20th, 2024
NORTHERN LESSER ANTILLES – SEVEN endemic rich Caribbean islands
Traveling north from Barbados, we visit Martinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Montserrat, & Antiqua and Barbuda. Each island is home to a at least one endemic bird… the goal is to pick nearly 30 birds that are limited to this region of the Caribbrean biozone. [The tour uses Puerto Rico as a linchpin that allows one to go home with an additonal 30 endemics by including the week long extension].
Tour Format: TARGET BIRDING DAILY
Tour Style: [C]
Tour Checklist – Birds Seen: https://ebird.org/tripreport/205472
Tour Price: $6,995/pp Sharing
Corsican Finch
APRIL 18th – 30th, 2024
HERITAGE STYLE – CORSICA & SARDINIA
Two ferociously independent islands, Corisa governed by Fance, and Sardinia, Italy, invite us to step back in time amid a people that long ago choose to abandon the rush of modern living. We use the Heritage-Style to explore these two distinct pieces of paradise. For the birder there are two endemic species (Corsica Nuthatch and Corsica Finch) and two rare breeders (Moltoni’s and Marmora’s warblers) that make the islands somewhat like a holiday present filled with expectancy. The tour uses Paris as a linchpin for arriving and returning from the two lovely Mediterranean isles.
Tour Format: HERITAGE-STYLE BIRDING (relaxed & exploratory)
Tour Style: A
Tour Checklist – Birds Seen: https://ebird.org/tripreport/224673O PEOPLE SHARING
Tour Price: $7,995
2024 – 2025
Puerto Rican Owl
SEPT 16th – 30th, 2025
ICELAND & SCOTLAND
Iceland is an easy ‘connection’ destination for the USA. We will have three full days of rugged landscapes, volcanoes, waterfall, artic bird species, while during the time in Scotland we will pay homage along with golfers and wiskey drinkers… This tour is designed to be ‘fun’, and a wee-bit ‘birdy’. The endemic Scottish Crossbill and island race of Crested Tit await us. This season also affords a movement of migrating birds, and the benefit of fewer tourists to scare them away. Meals, lodging, activities, and transportation have all been arranged to make for a vacation-like birding tour. We will likely see around 125 species of birds, but this tour will be more remembered by the warmth of the people we meet along our journeys, and of course to color and texture of the enchanted countryside that surrounds us each day.
Tour Format: [Heritage-Style] Tour Style: [A]
Space Availability: (Two people sharing) Price: ($8,995)
Cozumel Vireo
MAY 25th – JUNE 8th, 2024
KAZAKHSTAN
Central Asian Birds – a combination of montane species found in the northern Pamir Mountains (peaks to 25K elevation), and nesters utilizing the hundreds of square miles 0f grasslands. Continuing East from Bulgaria and Georgia, Uzbekistan is the next step in our journey. Several dozen new birds to be seen – Ibisbill, Sociable Plover, Pallas’s Sandgrouse, MacQueen’s Bustard, and Bimaculated, Black, Asian Short-toed, & White-winged larks.
Tour Format: [OPEN BIRDING TOUR]
Tour Style: [C]
Tour Checklist – Birds Seen: https://ebird.org/tripreport/245065e
Price: $4,995
DECEMBER 4th – 14h, 2024 [Postponed Due to Security Concerns]
MEXICO’S YUCATAN PENINSULA
The Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico offers both a very fine birding experience and an excellent vacation opportunity. Everyone sees new birds in the Yucatan (15 species are either endemic or limited range), and while doing so one should expect pleasant hotels, delicious meal choices, and interesting Mayan sites. This is the only Heritage-Style route Legacy offers in Mexico, as it results in 225+ species of birds whether birding all-day, every-day or each morning and afternoon while enjoying other experiences within the day. It is the one destination in Mexico where a birder can comfortably share her/his vacation with a non-birding partner/family member/friend. The route includes Cozumel Island (10+ species with a Caribbean affinity), then north coast of Yucatan State (Mexican Sheartail, Yucatan Wren, Yucatan Gnatcatcher), and a number of forested trails amid protected parks and archeological sites.
Tour Format: Heritage-Style Birding
Tour Style: [A]
Tour Price: $4,395/pp
CAMBODIA & MALAYSIA
The land of ‘big’ birds – Giant and White-shouldered ibises, Greater Adjutant, and lots and lots of barbets! This trip fills a lot of birders ‘holes’.
A BIRDER’S DESTINATION
FEB 14th – MAR 2nd, 2025
JANUARY 5th – 15h, 2025 [Postponed Due to Security Concerns]
Heritage-Style Birding Tour – MONARCHS OF MEXICO
Mexico’s Monarchs targets the wintering Monarchs of Morelos, Mexico Almost playful… Guadalajara, and the ‘Tequila Train’ to the birthplace of one of Mexico’s ‘Vitamin T’s’ (Tequila, Tacos, Tamales, Tostados, & Tortillas). Guanajuato, Morelia, and of Monarch Butterflies by the tens of thousands in their pristine wintering forests.
Tour Format: Heritage-Style Birding
Tour Style: [A]
Tour Price: $4,695/pp
*CUSTOM TOURS*
Individuals, small parties of friends, and larger groups from birding clubs regularly travel with Legacy Tours as members of a custom tour to specific destinations, primarily in Mexico. Contact our office to explore the possibility of a custom tour for yourself [target birding], your family [target destination], or your birding club [targeted joint activity].