Portugal Birding Tour: Birds, Wine & Culture

Sitting in Europe’s southwestern corner gives Portugal the perfect position to offer a huge variety of experiences for any visitor and an excellent location for a birdwatching tour. Portugal is sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean to its west and south, and its north and east borders are occupied by Spain. This relaxed-pace Portugal birding tour will focus on the wonderful birding possible during the late fall (autumn) period. We have timed this Portugal bird tour to give a unique view of the country, as vast numbers of winter migrants arrive in the country.

The handsome Black-winged Kite is likely on this Portugal birding tour.

Continental Portugal’s bird list stands at 486 species (following International Ornithological Congress (IOC) v13.1 taxonomy, as of July 2023), a high total for such a small country, and its variety of habitats, climates, ecosystems, as well as its small size make it a fantastic country to go birding in, and our Portugal birding tour gives you the chance to enjoy some iconic Iberian species.

We are delighted to offer this Portugal birdwatching tour at a more relaxed pace than our more typical birding tours (such as our intensive Spain birding tour), by combining the fabulous birding with visits to some of Portugal’s best vineyards and cultural highlights. With wine tasting taking place almost every couple of days, and several cultural and geographical highlights to enjoy, we feel this tour has something to offer everyone, from the dedicated birder to the more casual visitor. It is also a great tour for a group of friends who might like somewhere to travel together!

We begin our Portugal birding tour in the beautiful city of Porto, from here we will head straight into the picturesque Douro River Valley, east of the city, for our first look at rural Portugal and its wonderful vineyards. While in the area we will enjoy not only vineyards but also beautiful scenery from several viewpoints, and we will also get to grips with mountain birding with species such as Griffon Vulture, Blue Rock Thrush, Iberian Grey Shrike, White-throated Dipper, and Black Wheatear all among some of our first targets.

Sagres in Portugal is one of several places on our Portugal birding tour where we can get great views of the giant Griffon Vulture.

From here we will slowly meander our way south through the country’s interior, observing how the habitat changes from lush river valleys to drier landscapes more like those of neighboring Spain. Along the way we will take in the beautiful town of Marvão before we reach the plains of the central regions of southern Portugal. It is this area that will hold some of Portugal’s really special species, with Spanish Imperial Eagle, Great Bustard, Iberian Magpie, and Black-bellied Sandgrouse all possible in this region, along with a whole host of other plains species.

We will then continue south to the Algarve, a beautiful coastline and famous among birders and non-birders alike. Here we will enjoy yet more wine tasting and cultural highlights and the birding will also be exciting, with large numbers of wintering shorebirds (waders) and other migrants present at a variety of different locations. We will also visit Portugal’s extreme southern corner and look across the vast Atlantic Ocean to see what might be passing Cape St Vincent, with highlights like Great Shearwater and Cory’s Shearwater both possible.

Finally, we will head north to the beautiful city of Lisbon. Here we visit the superb Tagus Estuary, a vitally important area for birds in Western Europe. Highlights here include Little Bustard, Savi’s Warbler, Calandra Lark, Black-winged Kite, and Bonelli’s Eagle, plus tens of thousands of shorebirds (waders) and wildfowl which spend the winter in the estuary. We will also have time to enjoy some of Lisbon’s cultural aspects before our tour concludes.

Calandra Lark has a restricted range within Europe however is widespread in southern Portugal and is a target bird during our Portugal birdwatching tour.