Welcome to Birdwatching Breaks

A warm welcome to our on-line 2023-2025 brochure of birdwatching holidays, this being our 36th year of operation.

In 2023-2025, we have introduced new tours to interesting countries around the world, all of them having had an inspection trip either by us or our local tour operators.

In Asia, we have destinations to Japan both in winter and early summer. For those who wish to witness the winter wonderland of Japan, we have tours in February 2024 and 2025. The country continues to be a popular destination and we have modified the winter tour slightly to visit an area for Japanese Murrelet. I have also introduced an early summer tour to Japan taking in the Ryuku Islands, Izu Islands and the beautiful island of Hokkaido.

In Africa, we have departures to Guinea-Bissau, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa. These destinations offer you an extremely wide range of African birds and mammals from the Sahel in Senegal to the birds and mammals of South Africa and neighbouring Namibia. In Senegal we have a new tour taking in a pelagic trip off Dakar and the Sahel region along the Senegal River. To the south a new tour has been introduced taking in the unexplored country of Guinea-Bissau and the southern part of Senegal, Casamance. A comprehensive tour taking in the major birding sites of this beautiful country. In our summer months we are going back to Namibia to visit this fascinating desert country for its birds, abundant wildlife and Etosha National Park. South Africa is an exceptional country for birds and wildlife and we have a tour taking in the Cape Town area and along the garden route towards Durban.

In The Americas a birding tour to Colombia the world's best birding country is planned for January 2024 and 2025. In mid-summer a tour to Arctic Canada where we visit Alberta and the isolated outpost of Cambridge Bay where breeding birds abound in the brief summer period. In the Caribbean area we have two one week tours to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico which can be combined to observe many of the island endemic birds species found on the islands.

In the same geographical region I am pleased to revisit Mexico which takes in the bird rich areas of Mexico City, Veracruz, Oaxaca and the impressive Sierra Madre mountain range.

Closer to home, we have departures to Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Ireland, France, Lesvos and Sweden. These countries offer you great birding among spectacular countryside and vistas.

2024 sees the 19th year of Black Isle Birding which covers all our holidays operating in Scotland and Britain. This sector has grown significantly over the last few years and we are pleased to say that we have a growing reputation as one of Scotland’s premier birding companies. Jo and I operate our popular “holiday at home” programme based at Cygnus House. Its location, overlooking the Cromarty Firth and set in two acres of wildlife habitat, makes it is an ideal base for visiting northern Scotland. We have several other Scottish tours to the Western Isles, Islay, Shetland, and an island special visiting Mull, Tiree and The Uists.

I firmly believe we offer you the best birding packages in Scotland, with the country’s top birding guides, along with a friendly and welcoming service with no hidden extras.

The team at Birdwatching Breaks looks forward to welcoming you on one of our tours.

Mark Finn