Madagascar's Endemic Birds

Summary

Madagascar’s unique wildlife is well documented. Most famous are its lemurs, but the island is also home to an impressive avifauna: four endemic families of birds (the mesites, ground-rollers, asities and the Bernieridae ‘warblers’), plus two additional families (the vangas and cuckoo-rollers) that occur only on Madagascar and the nearby Comoros Islands. On this tour we go in search of the island’s spectacular and unique birdlife, visiting the different regions of the country.

We start in the one of the best forests for lemurs, but just as good for birding - the rainforests of Andasibe-Mantadia National Park. One of the main draws is the Indri that reside here, with their beautifully haunting calls resounding far and wide, but the birding is just as captivating with many species of newtonia, asity, jery, tetraka, vanga plus many more found here, with Scaly Ground-roller and Nuthatch Vanga particular species to look for. We will return to Tana for the night before flying to Mahajanga and the second part of this trip. We will head to the dry western forests of Ankarafantsika National Park, another unique habitat that is sure to yield more unique and exciting species such as Madagascar Fish Eagle and White-breasted Mesite. We then head back to Mahajanga and beyond for some wetland habitat, exploring the vast Betsiboka Estuary, and a night camping on the shores of Lake Kinkony to search for the incredibly rare Sakalava Rail. Flying back to Tana for another overnight, we then fly south-west to Toliara with time to look for Verreaux's Coua and Red-shouldered Vanga, and then to the spiny forest for Sub-desert Mesite, Sickle-billed Vanga and Long-tailed Ground-roller amongst others. We fly back to Tana for one last night before it is time to leave this amazing country.