Spain

13 Days from
$4,450 USD
Land Tour
Highlights

Highlights

  • Excellent birding in well-established network of nature reserves and national parks that occur across Spain.
  • Dramatic scenery, fascinating history and diverse cultures; this is a fine time to be in Spain with warm and pleasant days and breeding season for birds.
Map

Map

Tour Overview

Our Spain birding tour takes in the wonderful steppes, woodlands and mountains of Sierra de Gredos and Extremadura with its incredible birdlife, especially the high concentration of raptors at Monfrague, the wetland wilderness of the Cota Doñana, and the charming hills and valleys of the Serrania de Ronda, renowned for its lush and diverse fauna and flora.

We take in towns steeped in medieval culture, the Atlantic shores at Tarifa at the Straits of Gibraltar, and picturesque white limestone communities nestled on mountainsides.

Wildlife highlights will be many – Greater Flamingo, several eagles – Spanish Imperial, Golden, Booted and Bonelli’s, both Great and Little Bustards, egrets, herons, ibis including the introduced Northern Bald, Collared Pratincole, Iberian (Azure-winged Magpie), sandgrouse, several larks, wheatears and rock-thrushes, warblers, shorebirds, choice gulls – the list goes on.

Dates & Prices

DATES & PRICES

What's Included

Tour Price Includes

  • All accommodation,
  • All meals
  • Ground transportation
  • All park, conservation and entrance fees
  • Whale-watching tour (weather dependent)
  • 4 - 5 participants with one guide, 6 - 10 with two guides and two vehicles

Tour Price Does Not Include

  • Flights to and from start/end locations
  • Travel Insurance
  • Items of a personal nature

Itinerary

Day 1: Arrival in Malaga

Our Spain birding tour starts when we meet for supper at our hotel in Malaga. Close to the hotel could be common species such as Red-rumped Swallow, Crested Lark, the endemic Spotless Starling, Eurasian Collared Dove, and the introduced Monk Parakeet. Night in Malaga

Malaga, Spain cityscape at the Cathedral, City Hall and Alcazaba citadel of Malaga.

Day 2 : Guadalhorce River, Sierra de las Nieves National Park and Ronda

Our first destination is the Rio Guadalhorce National Park, very close to our hotel. This area is a complex of freshwater ponds and low scrub between two arms of the Rio Guadalhorce, at the estuary into the Mediterranean Sea, and has a diverse avifauna. We will amass an impressive list of birds, from Greater Flamingo, Black-winged Stilt, Pied Avocet, Little and Greater Ringed Plovers, Kentish (Snowy) Plover, and several shorebirds and gulls to Cetti’s, Reed, Sedge and Sardinian Warblers, Serin, Stonechat and the introduced Common Waxbill. Purple Swamphen and White-headed Duck are possible, as is Eurasian Kingfisher.

We leave Malaga and we drive west and then north through the Sierra de las Nieves. The Los Quejigales access road passes through stands of pines and firs, open areas and dense scrub, supporting Black and Black-eared Wheatears, Subalpine and Dartford Warblers, Rock Bunting, Firecrest, several species of tits – Crested, Great, Blue and Coal, Alpine Swift, and Bonelli’s Eagle.We then head to the Serrania de Ronda for a one-night stay. The town of Ronda is bisected by the deep El Tajo gorge, and from the southern walls of the old town one can view the gorge and its nesting Lesser Kestrel, Red-billed Chough, Black Redstart and Crag Martins. Night close to Ronda.

Spain bird-watching tour

Day 3: Rio Guadiaro and transfer to Tarifa

In the morning, we visit the Rio Guadiaro valley for a wide selection of species, from Red-legged Partridge to Golden and Short-toed Eagles, Eurasian Honey-Buzzard, Alpine Swift, Spotted Flycatcher, Sardinian Warbler, Serin and Cirl Bunting. The town of Grazalema, one of the more attractive “white villages”, is an excellent spot for Black Wheatear as well as several warblers including Melodious, Red-billed Chough, shrikes, nightingales and Stonechat. We then leave the Serrania de Ronda and head west to Tarifa for a three-night stay.

birding in Spain

Days 4 & 5: Tarifa

At Tarifa, along the coast, we should find Yellow-legged and Audouin’s Gulls, Sandwich Tern, migrant shorebirds such as Little Stint, Sanderling, Dunlin, Common Redshank and Greenshank and residents like Black-winged Stilt and Pied Avocet. Zitting Cisticola and Greater Short-toed Lark can be seen from the boardwalk. We also have a chance for Little Swift, an African species that spills across the Straits of Gibraltar here. This area is famous for raptor migration, and we will watch the skies for migrating birds, perhaps European Honey Buzzard or Short-toed Eagle. Depending on weather, we may take a 2 to 2.5 hour whale-watching trip into the Straits of Gibraltar where we could expect to see several cetaceans and seabirds, including Cory’s and Balearic Shearwaters and Northern Gannet. Nights in Tarifa.

Raptor migration, Spain

Days 6 & 7: Parque Nacional de Doñana

We leave Tarifa and head to the fabulous Coto Doñana. On the way we plan to stop in the town of La Barca de Vejer, to look for the recently introduced Northern Bald Ibis which occupy a cliff face at the entrance to the town. We also visit the nearby Barbate saltmarshes to search for Collared Pratincole, Glossy Ibis, Eurasian Thick-knee, Audouin’s Gull, Squacco Heron, and Caspian Tern. A wetland along the Rio Brazo near the small community of Pinzon hosts Black-headed Weaver, an African species newly established in Spain, as well as water birds that includes Marbled Duck, Greater Flamingo, spoonbill, egrets, herons, Glossy Ibis, Purple Swamphen, and a nesting colony of Whiskered Terns. The Laguna de Medina has convenient boardwalks and bird blinds for viewing Great Crested and Eared Grebes, Tufted Ducks, nightingales and several warblers.

We then travel on to world famous Parque Natural de Donana, and our accommodation in the historic town of El Rocío, home of the Virgen del Rocío, for the next two nights. Our hotel is located on the shores of the marismas, where Greater Flamingos, Eurasian Spoonbills and Gull-billed and Whiskered Terns forage within sight of our rooms. Reed beds hold Great Reed and Savi’s Warblers, and Squacco Heron, Purple Swamphen, Glossy Ibis and Little Bittern feed along the shoreline, and Western Marsh Harriers quarter the marsh.

During our stay, we visit an array of different habitats, from woodlands to open grasslands, beaches and extensive wetlands. One such place is José Antonio Valverde Visitor Center, for Purple Herons and Black-crowned Night-Herons, Great, Little and Cattle Egrets, and various waterfowl, grebes and shorebirds including Pied Avocet, Ruff and Little Ringed Plover, while drier areas support Greater and Lesser Short-toed Larks. Trails at El Acebuche and La Rocina pass through woodlands and wetlands that support Red-crested and Common Pochards, Eurasian Bee-eater, European Roller, Short-toed Treecreeper, Common Nightingale, Iberian Chiffchaff, and Cetti’s Warblers. Salt pans sometimes have Red-knobbed Coot, Tawny Pipits occur close by, and a night-time foray could turn up Eurasian Scops-Owl and Red-necked Nightjar. Collared Pratincoles and Red-rumped Swallows hawk insects, Spanish Imperial Eagles nest in the open savannas, and we have a chance at several mammals - Red Fox, Iberian Red Deer, Fallow Deer, and Wild Boar, and with great good luck the Iberian endemic Pardel Lynx. Nights at El Rocío.

Whiskered Terns in Donana

Days 8 to 10: Parque Nacional de Monfragüe

We leave El Rocio and Andalusia and head north to Extremadura for our next three nights. The western province of Extremadura is an area of open grasslands, steppes and Cork Oak forests (“dehasas”), renowned historically for explorers such as Francisco Pizarro and Hernán Cortés. We visit the rolling pasture country around Santa Marta de Magasca, for specialties of the region – both Great and Little Bustards, Pin-tailed and Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Eurasian Hoopoe, European Rollers nesting in nest boxes, Calandra Lark, Woodchat and Southern Gray Shrikes, Eurasian Thick-knee, Corn Bunting, and Common and Great Spotted Cuckoos. The dehasas hold many choice species – Melodious and Sardinian Warblers, Blackcap, Eurasian Golden Oriole and Iberian (Azure-winged) Magpie.

North of Trujillo is the magnificent Parque Nacional de Monfragüe, and we spend much time in this superb park, nearly 110 square kms of dehasas, cliffs, riparian vegetation and woodlands. Monfrague is internationally acclaimed for its density of birds of prey – we have a chance at finding a dozen species including Red and Black Kites, Short-toed, Booted and Spanish Imperial Eagles, Peregrine Falcon, Eurasian Kestrel, and many Cinereous (Black), Egyptian and Eurasian Griffon Vultures, especially at Peña Falcon, where Rio Tajo has cut through the Sierra de Corchuelas, a high cliff face providing constant thermals and updraughts for these large birds to soar effortlessly. Black Stork and Eurasian Eagle-Owl also nest in the park, along with Thekla and Wood Larks, Subalpine Warbler, Blue Rock-Thrush, Rock Petronia, Spanish Sparrow, and Common Nightingale. Nights near Parque Nacional de Monfragüe.

Griffon © Javi Elorriaga

Day 11: Sierra de Gredos

Our morning depends upon how well we have done on previous days. We may revisit Monfrague, perhaps out onto the steppes, or spend time walking the ancient cobbled streets of Trujillo where Lesser Kestrels and Pallid Swifts nest. We then head north, admiring the White Stork nests atop historic buildings, and looking for Black-shouldered Kites and Montagu’s Harrier, to the scenic Sierra de Gredos, the southern boundary of Spain’s Cordillera Central.

We first visit the Reserva Natural de Gredos, a spectacular park situated below the rugged 2600 m Pico Almanzor. Here we walk along trails, looking for Eurasian Buzzard, White-throated Dipper, Western Yellow and Gray Wagtails, Black Redstart, Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush, Stonechat, Eurasian Crag and House Martins, European Goldfinch, Ortolan and Rock Buntings, and with luck Bluethroat, and we make extra effort to find the magnificent Spanish Ibex. Our parador is located in a beautiful setting overlooking pine forest, home to several forest species - Western Bonelli’s Warbler, Coal and Crested Tits, Firecrest, Pied Flycatcher, Chaffinch, and perhaps even Citril Finch and Red Crossbill. Rock walls in gardens support the Ocellated Lizard, a striking reptile of emerald green dappled with blue spots. Night in the Sierra de Gredos.

Ortolan bunting in Gredos_Javi

Day 12: Drive to Madrid

We spend the morning in the Sierra de Gredos, looking for species not already found - perhaps Common Swift, Common Raven, Booted Eagle, Eurasian Hobby, Wood Pigeon, Eurasian Collared Dove, Ortolan Bunting, Long-tailed Tit, Citril Finch and others. We then head east to Madrid. Night in Madrid.

Rock Bunting © Javi Elorriaga

Day 13: Departure

Our Spain birding tour ends today. You can depart for flights home anytime today.

What to Expect

Overview

Spain offers fantastic birding and botanizing in spectacular landscapes scattered with historic towns. It also is a country with a rich historical and cultural heritage. In order to see as wide a variety of species as possible, and especially the specialties, during our Spain birding tour we visit different habitats over much of central and southern Spain. En route we also encounter sites of historic and cultural interest. To maximize time in the field there will be early morning starts and pre-breakfast journeys, though some of these will be optional.

Walking

In general the tour is not strenuous: pace will be slow allowing time for us to fully enjoy fauna and flora, and the places we visit, and there will be some gentle hiking occasionally over moderately rough or steep terrain.

Food

Most days we will have a box or picnic lunch in the field or call in at a local restaurant. In the evenings we will eat at the hotel or a nearby restaurant, where we will enjoy a fine meal, review the day’s bird list and discuss the itinerary for the next day.

Accommodation

The hotels in Spain are of very good quality.

Boat rides

We will take a 2 to 2.5 whale-watching tour in the Straits of Gibraltar (weather dependent). The boat has bathrooms onboard.

Climate

The weather should be warm and sunny but can be cool at night and early morning, and rain is possible. Some warm clothing for evening and a light waterproof jacket should be brought as should stout walking shoes or boots. Mosquitoes are present in some areas, therefore bring insect repellant.

Tour Video

Eagle-Eye Tours birding tour to Spain 2019

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Featured Wildlife

While we cannot guarantee sightings of the birds or mammals listed below, we believe that encountering these species is quite likely during this tour.

  • Great Bustard
  • Little Bustard
  • Eurasian Griffon Vulture
  • Black (Cinereous) Vulture
  • Black-bellied Sandgrouse
  • Eurasian Bee-eater
  • Spanish Imperial Eagle
  • Iberian (Azure-winged) Magpie
  • European Roller
  • Bonelli’s Eagle
  • Black Wheatear

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