Birding Tour India: The Northwest – Lions and Desert Birding in Gujarat

This small group tour focuses on the amazing birds and wildlife in the deserts of Gujarat in northwestern India. We will have the opportunity to see some very exciting and Critically Endangered (IUCN), rare, localized, and/or endemic birds as well as a range of interesting overwintering species. The tour is also great for any family listers or world birders, with monotypic Crab-plover and Grey Hypocolius both possible.

Please enjoy some of the northwest India tour highlights in the above video.

Other highlight birds possible during the tour include Macqueen’s Bustard, Indian Courser, Sociable Lapwing, Indian Skimmer, Demoiselle Crane, Common Crane, Lesser Flamingo, Greater Flamingo, Sykes’s Nightjar, Sirkeer Malkoha, Painted Sandgrouse, Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, Spotted Sandgrouse, Painted Francolin, Laggar Falcon, Red-necked Falcon, Pallid Harrier, Montagu’s Harrier, Eastern Imperial Eagle, Indian Eagle-Owl, Dalmatian Pelican, Greater Hoopoe-Lark, Sykes’s Lark, Indian Bush Lark, Sand Lark, Marshall’s Iora, White-naped Tit, White-bellied Minivet, and White-browed (Stolitczka’s) Bush Chat.

The tour will also focus on finding some of the country’s major mammals, such as Asiatic Lion (the only place in the world where you can see this subspecies), Asiatic Wild Ass, Indian Leopard, Blackbuck, Four-horned Antelope (Chousingha), and Chinkara (Indian Gazelle).

You could combine this tour with our very popular Birding Tour India: The North – Tigers, Amazing Birds, and the Himalayas  that runs directly before this tour, and you could follow it up with our short Birding Tour India: The West – Forest Owlet Extension, a bird with a fascinating history (click the link to find out about it. Other extensions at each location are also possible if you would like to prolong your stay in this wonderful and vibrant country, details here.

The highly sought-after and rather dapper-looking Indian Courser.