8 Spectacular Birding Destination | Lindblad Expeditions

Melissa Klurman

While you can spot birdlife on every voyage with National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions, there are certain destinations that stop even the most serious birder in their tracks. The exceptional places that made this list offer incredible opportunities to walk among jaw-dropping colonies of birds or to spot a single, rare species found nowhere else in the world. Zodiac around Norway’s Bear Island where one million seabirds engulf the sky, step into the Ecuadorian Chocó which teems with more than 400 species, or search for the vibrant orange fruit dove on Fiji’s spectacularly lush Taveuni Island.

In the company of your expert guides, you’ll encounter and photograph exceptional birdlife. Even guests who don't consider themselves twitchers will be awed by the avian fireworks they'll spot in the sky and on the shore.
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Bear Island, Norway

Don’t be fooled by the name. This small island, halfway between the northern tip of Norway and the High Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, should really be called “Bird Island” for its staggering number of avian inhabitants. On a National Geographic-Lindblad expedition, prepare for one of the most unforgettable wildlife encounters as you Zodiac cruise into the coves and inlets around this mist-shrouded island.

Peer up to take in the spectacular sight of tens of thousands of fulmars filling the sky. Turn your gaze down to watch black legged, wide-winged gray and white kittiwakes thronging the sea below. Look way up, and you’ll also spot common guillemots—which resemble tiny penguins—perched near the sheer Fuglefjellet cliffs, the highest seabird cliffs in the North Atlantic Ocean. If that wasn’t enough, there are also hundreds of thousands of common mure and thick-billed murre, little auks (also known as dovekies) and purple sandpipers, that call this wonderland home.

Explore Bear Island on:
Norwegian Discovery: Svalbard and the Northern Fjords
Norway’s Fjords and Arctic Svalbard

Photo: Ralph Lee Hopkins

The Ecuadorian Chocó

Many birders head to Ecuador with their sights set on one destination, the Galápagos Islands, and with good reason. The number and variety of endemic birds there is quite literally the stuff of legend, with everything from blue-footed boobies to Darwin’s famous finches. However, any birder worth their binoculars will also want to add the Andes highlands and the biodiverse Chocó tropical forest to their list.

Before heading to Galápagos, a pre-voyage extension with National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions brings you to Mashpi Lodge, where birds such as endemic mountain tanagers, trogons, motmots and hummingbirds flock around the verandas. In the surrounding forest, hike through an extensive network of trails, step into a stunning open-air tram or take a ride on an ingenious aerial bicycle. Along the way, keep an eye out for the Chocó toucan, which sports a race car-worthy yellow stripe down the top of its beak, as well as indigo flowerpiercers and moss-backed tanagers, which are just a few of the more than 400 species in this spectacular bio-region.

Explore the Ecuadorian Chocó >

Columbia and Snake Rivers

With two of the top 10 longest bird lists of any U.S. state, Oregon and Washington offer opportunities for phenomenal birding closer to home. There’s a huge range of species found along the rivers you'll traverse here. For example, when you’re traveling in Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington, if you spot a flash of deep, sky-blue in the air, it may mean that the dazzling mountain bluebird, a small migratory thrush, is present.

You'll hear the cascading song of the tiny bronze and white-bibbed canyon wren along the slopes of the Columbia River into Eastern Washington before you spot them in the early spring. And the petite copper and gray Say’s phoebe, a member of the large flycatcher family, returns to its nesting territory of Eastern Washington and Eastern Oregon every March, when guests aboard voyages along the Columbia and Snake Rivers can readily spot them.

Explore the Columbia and Snake Rivers >

Caroni Swamp, Trinidad

You don’t have to be a birder with a life list of rare birds to appreciate the spectacle that takes place every evening at the Caroni Swamp on Trinidad’s west coast. It’s astounding even if you can’t tell a warbler from a woodpecker. As dusk nears, flocks of hundreds of vibrant, scarlet-red ibis (Trinidad and Tobago’s national bird) return home to roost in the thick mangroves bathed in late afternoon light. Picture a flash of red sunset suddenly breaking through a verdant green canopy, and you’ll begin to imagine what it’s like. The birds fill the mangroves so densely that, from a distance, the trees actually appear to be in full bloom with flowers.

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Subantarctic Islands, New Zealand and Australia

In the wildly beautiful subantarctic islands of New Zealand, birds often outnumber humans by a million to one. In fact, 11% of all of the world’s seabirds breed in these remote islands and when you make landfall on any one of them, you won’t need to search hard to spot massive bird colonies. On the Snares Islands, the closest subantarctic islands to South Island, more than 99 species of breeding birds have been recorded, including albatross, Antarctic terns and Snares crested penguins.

On remote Macquarie Island (the only subantarctic island owned by Australia) be prepared for a staggering number of penguins, nearly a million in all across four species, including 850,000 endemic royal penguins, gentoo and southern rockhopper penguins and 100,000 pairs of king penguins, the third largest colony in the world.

Explore the Subantarctic Islands >

Taveuni Island, Fiji

Green and glorious, Fiji’s third largest island earned the moniker “The Garden Island'' for its rich vegetation, which in turn attracts more than 100 birds across the island and up to the mountainous area of Des Voeux Peak. Of the many species who inhabit Taveuni, several rare birds are found nowhere else in the world, like the elusive, but brightly hued orange fruit dove with its olive green head. Head inland to discover the sparkling waterfalls of Bouma National Heritage Park and to search for additional notable species such as sleek black silktails, fantails, jungle mynas (pictured here), shining parrots and the diminutive red-throated lorikeet.

Explore Taveuni Island on:

Rites and Relics: Fiji Firewalking, Vanuatu Volcanoes, and Beyond
Fiji and Tahiti Adventure: Vibrant Reefs and Cultural History

Curú National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica

On the northwest coast of Costa Rica, along the Nicoya Peninsula, sits Curú National Wildlife Refuge, the country’s first private national wildlife reserve. The refuge offers a unique habitat for wildlife, straddling the division between the wet jungles of the south and Guanacaste’s drier environment.

There are hundreds of species of birds that inhabit this thriving ecosystem that we’ll look for while while exploring the park’s tracks and trails, including the colorful turquoise-browed motmots, which also sport orange and green feathers in addition to its colorful turquoise “brow” and tail, and with luck, scarlet macaws, the large red parrots with brilliant blue and yellow wings.

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Cape Kidnappers, New Zealand

Just outside of Napier, Cape Kidnappers is home to the biggest and most accessible gannet colony in the world: more than 20,000, and counting. These elegant seabirds have been returning annually to breed in this coastal area since the 1870s. Beyond the initial delight in seeing the large numbers of the bird’s long-necks and black, white, and yellow plumage, especially when they’re fishing, hovering high above the water to scan for fish and then tucking in their wings for a spectacular plunge, we may also be able to witness the gannet’s breeding habits. First, there’s the bill-fencing courtship duets, then the sweetly preening bonded pairs, and, come January, we may be able to spot the downy fluff of newborn chicks.

Explore Cape Kidnappers on:
Coastal New Zealand: Scenic Fjords, Māori History, and Abundant Wildlife
Southern Odyssey: New Zealand and the Subantarctic Islands

8 Spectacular Birding Destinations Around the World