When you think of Indian wildlife and birdwatching, the first destinations that come to mind are probably verdant forests, Himalayan mountain passes, or bird-filled wetlands. The western deserts, however, provide some truly spectacular birding in one of India’s richest cultural regions, and are home to some of the rarest birds in India.

Our tour will head out to the Thar Desert of Rajasthan, in the Desert National Park, the last remaining stronghold of the Great Indian Bustard, a species that sadly could well be extinct in our lifetimes. En route we will enjoy one of Indian’s avian spectacles at close quarters, the wintering flock of thousands of Demoiselle Cranes at Kheechan.…

The Gujarat coast is one of the richest areas for wintering waterbirds in India and we start in Jamnagar where sites such as Khijadiya Bird Sanctuary and Narara and Pirotan Islands will show us thousands of flamingos and hopefully large flocks of one of our main targets here, Crab Plover. Lakhota Lake in the city attracts large flocks of gulls, with the chance of an Indian rarity.

Gir National Park is the only site remaining in India for the Asiatic Lion. The local population is currently doing well with an estimated 600 lions, and we also have a reasonable chance of seeing Asian Leopard.…

Is there a better introduction to India, its scenery, wildlife and birds, than this classic tour from Delhi? For the first-time visitor it is perfect, and the enormous variety of birds throughout means it is always a thrill, even for the regular birder.

Starting from Delhi we will have time for some local birding at for example Sultanpur National Park before continuing on to Jaipur, and an afternoon safari at Jhalana where we have a very good chance of seeing Asian Leopard. From there it is on to Ranthambore National Park. Once the hunting grounds of the Maharajas of Jaipur and the British, it was declared a Wildlife Sanctuary in 1955 and a National Park in 1980.…

Chopta in the Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary provides some excellent winter and spring birding, and fantastic landscapes. A mix of pine and deodar forest with rhododendrons, amidst lush ‘bugyals’ or grassy meadows, it is probably the best and most easily accessible place in India to see the stunning ‘nine-coloured’ state bird of Uttarakhand, the Himalayan Monal. That alone would be worth the long drive, but the area has much more to offer.

This week-long tour is offered as an extension to the Classic North India birding tour. It is a little more arduous, with a couple of long drives and basic accommodation, but the birds and the luxurious stay at the end, make it all worthwhile!…

The Eastern Himalaya region teems with biodiversity, including some very special birds and mammals. Manas National Park, named after the Manas River, is a tiger reserve on the Bhutan border, and part of an important elephant corridor. It has a fantastic selection of mammals including the gorgeous Golden Langur. For birds it is a prime site for the critically endangered Bengal Florican, and may also produce Black-tailed Crake, Pied Harrier, Wreathed Hornbill, Red-headed Trogon, Indian Grassbird, Hodgson’s Bushchat and Rufous-vented Laughingthrush.

Cherrapunjee is famous for being one of the wettest places in the world.…

Northeast India is one of the most bird-rich regions in the world. The dense forests are home to various species of skulking babblers and similarly plumaged warblers, but also beautiful pheasants and other stunners such as Fire-tailed Myzornis, Himalayan Cutia, Beautiful Nuthatch, Ward’s Trogon and, of course, the recently discovered Bugun Liocichla.

We start this tour with a visit to lowland Nameri National Park on the Jia Bhoreli river, which has a wide variety of species and some key targets we are unlikely to see elsewhere, including Pied Falconet, Oriental Hobby, Wreathed Hornbill and White-winged Duck.…

The Mishmi Hills is the main focus of this tour, after our main Northeast India trip further west, but the lowland wet forests of Assam have some fantastic birding, and we should manage a brief taster of these in the Jeypore forest area of Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary, before heading to Roing. Finding the rare Brown Hornbill would make this very worthwhile, but we could also be lucky with White-winged Duck, Grey Peacock Pheasant, Ruddy Kingfisher and Silver-breasted Broadbill.

The Mishmi Hills of northeastern Arunachal Pradesh has become popular in recent years as travel restrictions in the state have eased.…

This is a specialist birding trip in the spectacular Great Himalayan National Park, focussed on the stunning, enigmatic and very seldom seen Western Tragopan. It is timed to be at the peak of Tragopan activity so we should definitely hear them calling, and have the best possible chance of seeing this amazing bird.

As well as the tragopan we hope to see Cheer and Koklass Pheasants, Himalayan Monal, Bearded Vulture, Golden Eagle, White-cheeked Nuthatch, Spotted Nutcracker, Long-billed Thrush, White-throated Tit, Pink-browed Rosefinch, Red-headed Bullfinch and Collared and Spot-winged Grosbeaks.…

Kashmir and Ladakh at the northern extreme of Indian Subcontinent, across the Himalayas, offer a stark contrast to the rest of the country, in landscape and culture as well as birds and wildlife. The location attracts migrants from northern parts of the Palearctic, and there are several vagrant species seldom seen anywhere else in India. However, we will be mainly concentrating on localised breeding species, such as Black-necked Crane, Ibisbill, Kashmir Nuthatch, Kashmir Flycatcher.

A few days based in Srinagar (staying on a houseboat on the edge of Nigeen or Dal Lakes!) will be spent exploring surrounding forests and valleys, at sites that are likely to include Dachigam National Park, Gulmarg and Yousmarg.…

It’s not unusual to escape the European winter for some balmy Indian sun, but what about escaping the European summer to experience the Indian monsoon?! Actually, we should avoid much rain on this tour, focussed on some special birds that are very difficult to see at other times of year. Instead the lush green landscapes are a stark contrast to what you expect from India.

Our key bird is the rare endemic Lesser Florican, seldom seen due to its very secretive behaviour. Monsoon is when it does its spectacular jumping display, which we will look for mainly in agricultural fields near Sonkhaliya.…

Among the rugged mountain landscapes of Ladakh, lives possibly the most elusive of the big cats: the Snow Leopard. As pioneers of this specially designed trip, Asian Adventures have tweaked it over 15 years to give us the optimum chance of spotting one of these beautiful creatures. Our trained guides and local trackers almost always ensure at least a glimpse of this magnificent predator in its natural habitat. We will also enjoy the other unique wildlife that this high-altitude habitat has to offer, including Asiatic Ibex, Bharal (Blue Sheep) and Tibetan Wolf (the subspecies of the global Grey Wolf found in Nepal and Tibet as well as the Indian Trans-Himalaya region).…

This is a pioneering short extension to our Ladakh Snow Leopard expedition in search of another awe-inspiring large mammal, the ‘Dren-mo’, or Himalayan Brown Bear. In recent years sightings have been fairly regular around the town of Dras, 3,280m in the Kargil district of Ladakh, otherwise noted for being possibly the coldest inhabited place in India!

As well as Brown Bear and the stunning scenery of this seldom-visited region, there will be plenty wildlife to see. Although it is a short tour specially concentrating on Brown Bear, we will of course manage to see several good birds at the same time.…

North and East Sikkim are not regularly visited by birders but provide an excellent variety of East Himalayan birds that are often more confiding and easier to see than in the more popular sites in Arunachal Pradesh.

The first few days of this tour are spent in Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary, close to western Bhutan. The sanctuary covers a vast altitudinal range, to over 4,000 m, bringing with it many changes in birdlife as we ascend through the rhododendron and juniper forest to the alpine lakes. We will make use of one or two simple homestays in the area and have time to explore thoroughly, from lower areas around Phadamchen through the famous zigzag roads of Zuluk to the Nathang Valley.…

This short tour, a precursor to our Amazing Amurs tour, visits one of the most beautiful parks in India’s Northeast, followed by the best-known. Manas National Park, named after the Manas River, is a tiger reserve on the Bhutan border, and part of an important elephant corridor. It has a fantastic selection of mammals including the gorgeous Golden Langur. For birds it is a prime site for the critically endangered Bengal Florican, and we will also look for Swamp Francolin, Wreathed Hornbill, Red-headed Trogon, Silver-breasted Broadbill, Slender-billed Babbler, Sultan Tit and Black-breasted Parrotbill.…

This is a very special tour to experience one of the birding wonders of the entire world. Only in the last few years have Amur Falcons been known to congregate in such large numbers on migration. For just a few weeks at the end of October and early November in Nagaland, in India’s Northeast, phenomenal numbers of this beautiful falcon gather together to feed and roost during their remarkable migration from eastern Russia and China to southern Africa.

Just as remarkable is the turnaround from a horrific story of large-scale hunting to a local community conservation success: read more about the Amur massacre from Conservation India.…

The main focus of this tour is a birding trek through the largest protected area in the Eastern Himalayas, and third largest in India, the Namdapha National Park. However, we will have time to start with a short trip to ascend the Mishmi Hills, most notably looking for the highly localised Mishmi, or Rusty-throated, Wren-babbler. First described from one specimen collected in 1947, it was not seen again until 2004.

Spread over an area of 1,985 sq km in extreme eastern Arunachal Pradesh, Namdapha National Park is seldom visited due to the difficulty of access. The area is mountainous, crisscrossed by many watercourses forming part of the catchment area of the Brahmaputra through the Noa-Dihing (Diyun) river system.…

The mix of broadleaf and coniferous forests of the Neora Valley National Park provide fantastic birding and a great introduction to the Eastern Himalayas, with birds typically a little more confiding than in the further reaches of Arunachal Pradesh for example. Coupled with the magnificent Singalila National Park, where there is a very good chance of seeing the cutest of mammals, the Red Panda, and this is a marvellous wildlife tour.

We start this tour in the foothills of the Himalayas, between the Teesta and Mahananda rivers, at Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary. A wide variety of species, such as Red Junglefowl, Small Pratincole, Crested Treeswift, Green-billed Malkoha, Red-breasted Parakeet, Oriental Pied and Great Hornbills, Little Pied Flycatcher and Orange-bellied Leafbird, is an excellent way to kick off our species list.…

This tour is a special exploratory tour concentrating on the Nicobar Islands, Great Nicobar in particular. Only in recent years have the Government of India issued permits for foreigners to visit, and travel logistics are still unreliable and weather dependent. Great Nicobar is 540 km by sea from Port Blair, with the journey by boat typically taking 2 days and 1 night, but can be up to 4 days. Private helicopter and boat hire may be available, albeit expensive.

The key reason for travelling to the Nicobar Islands, and Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve on Great Nicobar Island in particular, are the additional endemic species, namely Nicobar Megapode, Great Nicobar Serpent Eagle, Nicobar Sparrowhawk, Nicobar Imperial Pigeon, Nicobar Parakeet, Nicobar Jungle Flycatcher, Nicobar Scops Owl and Nicobar Bulbul, plus the newly discovered and as yet undescribed ‘Great Nicobar Crake’.…

The Sundarbans National Park is a vast area of 4,262 sq. km in India alone, with a much larger portion in Bangladesh, forming the largest Tiger Reserve and National Park in India. It is a part of the world’s largest delta, formed by the rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna, and is also the world’s largest estuarine forest. In a landscape dominated by great tidal creeks and waterways, the only way to access and enjoy the area is by motorised boat.

The Sundarbans is the home of swimming Tigers, the curious Fishing Cat and Estuarine Crocodiles. The most sought-after birds include Brown-winged Kingfisher, Grey-headed Lapwing, Pallas’s Fish Eagle, Buffy Fish Owl, Lesser Adjutant or maybe a Mangrove Whistler.…

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