Birding in India can be quite a revelation, provided you know – or are guided by those who know – where to look. Over a thousand bird species are found in the forests, hills, valleys, wetlands, deserts, sanctuaries, and national parks that are spread throughout the length and breadth of the vast country. Many species are so rare that only an experienced birder can lead you to them, and some birding trails are so remote that, without guidance, you may easily get lost.
We at INDIA BIRDING TOURS bridge the gap between potential and reality. Our founding members have travelled extensively and explored the birding hotspots of India well enough to create exclusive tour packages that yield the best and most bird sightings, while giving you, at the same time, a dash of wildlife adventure and holiday fun. In these birding tour packages of India, we’ve put meticulous thought into selecting the birding trails, the camp sites, the guides, the accommodation, and even something as often overlooked as the meals that you are served.
Our India birding tour packages are a cut above the competition, and they especially stand out for their wide range. In Northeast India alone, we have four birding tours to cover the Himalayan foothills thoroughly. The Eaglenest Birding Tour in Arunachal Pradesh is the centrepiece, and around it we’ve created dedicated birding trips to cover the other important Northeast India birdwatching hotspots, such as the lake Maguri Beel and Kaziranga National Park in Assam, Khonoma Tragopan Sanctuary in Nagaland, and the rainforests of Cherrapunji in Meghalaya. Put together, these tours throw up sightings of around 700 bird species.
The Andaman Birding Tour in the Bay of Bengal enjoys pride of place in our kitty. We’ve personally helped develop birding tourism in the remote archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and our tour specifically targets dozens of endemic birds and even some exotic avian species from Southeast Asia. For a greater variety of endemics, we’ve combined the birding hotspots of Andamans with those of South India in our South India and Andamans Birding Tour. Separately, we have a tour dedicated exclusively to the endemic birds of the Western Ghats, which marks off all the major South India birding sites, including the famed Thattekad Bird Sanctuary in Kerala.
To the west, the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan boast an incredible diversity of birding habitats, such as lakes, grasslands, mudflats, creeks, salty marshes, deserts and the Aravalli hills. Our Gujarat Birding Tour centres around the Great and Little Rann of Kutch where many species of migratory birds gather around in large numbers every winter, while our Rajasthan Birding Tour scours the wildlife hotspots such as Desert National Park, Tal Chappar Sanctuary, Sambhar Wildlife Sanctuary, Ranthambore National Park and Keoladeo National Park. Another specialty of our Rajasthan trip is that it dovetails well with the other birding tours of North India, targeting the states of Uttarakhand and Kashmir.
Lastly, our Ladakh Birding Tour is an adventure to the top of the world. Birdwatching at the Himalayan lakes and high passes located upwards of 4000 meters is routine on this tour, and the rare Himalayan wildlife you get to see in these desolate parts is a bonus.
Collectively, these dozen tours cover all the birding hotspots of India and many new and remote birding trails that are still unknown to the tourism industry. Our itineraries are designed to extract maximum number of birdwatching hours out of a day and they include several stints of nocturnal birding as well. Even as we stay focussed on providing you the best India birding holiday, we also throw in a lot of fun on the side: like a sightseeing tour of the Taj Mahal, or Tiger Safaris in Corbett National Park, or water sports in the Andamans, or going down the trails of the Asiatic Lion in Gujarat.
Here is our bouquet of India’s best birdwatching tours.
Kolkata - Port Blair - Shoal Bay - Chidiya Tapu - Mount Harriet National Park - Port Blair - Kolkata
06 Days / 05 Nights
Our Andaman Birding Tour takes you to one of the world’s remotest birding hotspots and treats you to a wonderful pageantry of endemic birds. The geographic isolation of the archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar Islands has been a boon for its avifauna. Being hundreds of kilometres away from any continental land mass, this cluster of islands far south of the Bay of Bengal.
Delhi – Dibrugarh – Mishmi Hills - Mayodia Pass - Roing - Maguri Beel – Tinsukia – Digboi - Patkai & Jeypore - Kohima - Chizami – Khonoma
15 Days / 14 Nights
Our Arunachal, Assam and Nagaland Birding Tour dovetails three ace birding destinations of India in a single birdwatching adventure. Put together, the bird count and avifauna diversity of these three North-Eastern states is unrivalled throughout the Indian subcontinent. More than two-third of around 1300 bird species found in India can be seen in the hills, forests, grasslands, wetlands.
Delhi – Dibrugarh – Mishmi Hills - Mayodia Pass - Roing - Tinsukia - Maguri Beel - Digboi - Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary - Jeypore Forest Range - Digboi – Dibrugarh
13 Days / 12 Nights
From the mountain passes of Himalayan foothills to the lowland rainforests of Northeast India, our Assam and Mishmi Hills Birding Tour covers a wide range of bird habitats known both for numbers and diversity of avian species. As a birdwatching destination, Northeast India has a tremendous potential most of which is still untapped. The many biodiversity hotspots of the two states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
Delhi – Guwahati – Nameri National Park - Lama Camp – Bompu Camp - Sessni Camp - Khellong - Eaglenest Pass - Dirang – Sangti Valley - Dirang – Sela Pass – Mandala Top - Kaziranga National Park - Shillong - Cherrapunji - Guwahati
17 Days / 16 Nights
Our Eaglenest & Meghalaya Birding tour is an elaborate birdwatching expedition, chockfull of wildlife safaris, multi-altitude birding, forest camping, and tons of Himalayan adventure to boot.
Delhi – Guwahati – Nameri National Park - Lama Camp – Bompu Camp - Sessni Camp - Khellong - Eaglenest Pass - Dirang – Sangti Valley - Sela Pass - Mandala Top - Guwahati
14 Days / 13 Nights
Eaglenest is the centrepiece of our Northeast India birding tours. As a birdwatching destination, its specialty lies in its remoteness, its altitudinal range, its immense biodiversity, and the many rare and unique bird species it hosts.
Ahmedabad - Velavadar - Gir National Park - Jamnagar - Great Rann of Kutch - Little Rann of Kutch - Ahmedabad
14 Days / 13 Nights
The speciality of our Gujarat Birding Tour is the diverse bird habitats it covers. Drawing from decades of birding experience in this westernmost state of India, we pick out the choicest of Gujarat birding hotspots to ensure maximum sightings during your India birding holiday. Our Gujarat birding itinerary takes you to national parks, bird sanctuaries.
Delhi – Leh - Khardung La - Puga - Tso Moriri – Tso Kar
10 Days / 09 Nights
Our Ladakh Birding Tour rouses the birder and mountain adventurer in you. It showcases rare Himalayan birds in the most pristine and surreal landscape of the world’s mightiest mountain range. At the centre of our tour are birding expeditions at the two high-altitude lakes of Tso Moriri and Tso Kar in southeast Ladakh. These huge sapphire pools on a high Himalayan plateau are marvels of geography that beggar description.
Delhi – Ranthambore National Park - Bharatpur - Keoladeo National Park - Dholpur - Agra - Corbett National Park - Kumeria - Pangot - Sat Tal
15 Days / 14 Nights
Our North India Birding Tour is perfect for those who want a birdwatching holiday packed with hundreds of bird sightings, wildlife adventure, and cultural experience of India. Besides showcasing the birds of North India, our tour takes you on wildlife safaris in search of the tiger, and also includes a sightseeing tour of the Taj Mahal, one of the seven modern wonders of the world.
Delhi – Jaipur – Ajmer - Sonkhaliya -Srinagar
10 Days / 09 Nights
Our Rajasthan and Kashmir Birding Tour is themed around the monsoon. Every year, the summer rains cool off the sun-scorched landscape and bring out a fascinating variety of avifauna in the western state of Rajasthan and the northern region of Jammu and Kashmir.
Delhi – Udaipur – Mount Abu - Jodhpur – Jaisalmer - Desert National Park - Phalodi – Khichan – Tal Chhapar - Sambhar Wildlife Sanctuary - Ranthambore - Dholpur – Agra – Bharatpur - Keoladeo
15 Days / 14 Nights
Our Rajasthan birding tour offers a bouquet of extraordinary experiences. Besides covering the best birding trails of Rajasthan, the tour takes you on wildlife safaris in tiger reserves, culture trips in rural Rajasthan, and a special visit to the Taj Mahal, one of the seven modern wonders of the world.
Chennai - Port Blair - Chidiya Tapu - Bangalore - Mysore - Mudumalai - Ooty - Top Slip - Munnar - Thattekad - Cochin
17 Days / 16 Nights
Our birding tour of South India and the Andamans stands out for the many endemic bird species of the region it targets. Seasoned birders know well the thrill of catching sight of the endemics. To scan the woods and wetlands for a glimpse of a local winged beauty is perhaps a touch more rewarding than sighting a bird that moves across regions and habitats.
Kochi - Thattekkad - Munnar - Ooty - Masinagudi - Kochi
09 Days / 08 Nights
Our Western Ghats Endemic Birding Tour adopts a two-pronged approach. Firstly, it targets the birds that are exclusive to Peninsular India. Secondly, it ticks off a lot of other avian specialities in the long checklist of South Indian birds. The geographical importance of the Western Ghats can’t be overstated. It’s a mountain range that runs along the western coast of Peninsular India.
Birdwatching in India offers so much choice that one can easily overlook a potential birding hotspoteclipsed by a popular tourist hill station nearby. One such hotspot is Kaudia forest in Kanatal, Uttarakhand.
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Birding at Mandala Top in Arunachal Pradesh after a long Covid break made me notice many beauties of the place that were hiding in plain sight before. It’s true that absence makes the heart grow fonder.
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