How to Plan a Bird Watching Vacation

One of the most relaxing and challenging activities we enjoy is watching birds. In the process, we often identify the type and species of bird, learn specific behavior characteristics, learn similar birds, and learn about the habitat that supports their lifestyle. In the process, we often get a good walk, breathe fresh air, meet new people, and explore areas we've never seen, many that are quite beautiful. We use a checklist provided by our field guide or by Audubon or by a visited park to track the birds spotted. To expand our list of birds identified, we find we need to travel to new ecosystems. A vacation that will expand your bird list requires careful planning if you want to take advantage of your investment in airfare and time.

When we select a destination, we've often read about it in a birding magazine or have selected it based on maps in our field guides. Birding and wildlife magazines often have beautiful photographs of birds, hints about identification, tips for finding birds, conferences that celebrate bird migrations, and explanations of bird habitats. They are designed to seduce you into travel. Alternatively, the field guide maps show where a bird spends its time during various seasons. If you find a locale where a number of new birds for your list spend their time, you may have a new travel destination. Other times, when we know that we want to visit a specific location such as Costa Rica, we buy the field guide and use it to study up for our trip. Doing so insures that your identification skills are primed when you arrive and allows you to find more birds.

Once your destination is selected, maybe a state, country, or festival, it is important to do additional research. In order to select the places where we will visit, we rely on travel books, articles, and bird finding guides to help us choose stops. Some travel guides specifically call out places you can view wildlife. Many times, our stops were selected based on a write up on a National, State or County Park, which mentioned species seen during a given period. Many times, the month we chose to travel was based on when birds would fly into an area. Bird watching guides often explain the route needed to get to a given locale and the types of birds expected as well as tips about habitat and specify routes to travel. But not all areas have bird watching guides and not all bird watching guides are useful.

So once you have a variety of potential stops identified, look them over. Make sure that you visit a variety of ecosystems-lakes, deserts, swamps, rivers, coasts, deciduous, mixed and evergreen forests, and that you visit a variety of heights when traveling to hilly and mountainous areas. Each of these areas will provide a changing set of birds adapted to nest, eat, or survive. By selecting a variety, you will maximize the species that you will likely encounter.

One drawback of having a bird watching hobby is a car is often essential to reach many of the rather isolated spots. It is possible to travel between cities by train and either hire a tour guide company to take you to a spot, or rent a vehicle for the day. In some places, having a guide has been a wonderful experience, often netting us many species in a very short time. Guides know where a bird will be-some birds spend their time on the ground, some mid tree, some only on tree trunks, some near specific flowers etc., what their calls sound like, and where they have nests. We hired guides in Costa Rica, India, South Africa and in Mexico. In some places, having a guide insures your safety. But often, traveling by yourself will teach you more about birds because you're forced to pay careful attention.

In conclusion, to plan your bird watching trip, start by selecting a destination and buying travel books, field guides and bird finding guides that help you narrow down a list of stops. Then decide on what transportation you will use, then provide adequate time for travel between stops to insure you have enough time to watch the birds. Decide if you need guides, planned tour packages and budget appropriately for their cost. Then go and have lots of fun and come back with stories for all your friends. Be sure to carry your binoculars everywhere you go, because birds go everywhere, and you can, too.