Madagascar is one of the major zoogeographic regions of the Earth. Ninety percent of its forest species and all of its native land mammals are unique, among them the many species of lemurs, a primate group now largely confined to Madagascar. More than half of the 250-plus bird species are endemic, including five (or six!) families of birds found only here and on the nearby Comoros: the mesites, the monotypic Cuckoo-Roller, the ground-rollers, the asities, and the vangas. The couas comprise an endemic subfamily, and the Madagascar greenbuls are sufficiently distinct to merit their own endemic family (tetrakas or Bernieriidae) as well. It is also sadly a place where habitat destruction and over-population greatly threaten biodiversity, so it's an important destination on any birder's must-visit list.

Our tour visits all of the major habitats of the island, from gallery forests at Berenty and spiny forest near Toliara to dry deciduous forest near Mahajanga in the northwest and lush rainforest at Perinet, Mantadia, and Ranomafana. This broad coverage of the best locales gives us an excellent chance to find all the endemic bird families as well as potentially over 110 species of Madagascar's endemic birds--the few others being either nearly extinct, virtually unknown, highly localized, or inaccessible to groups.

To walk the misty forest of Perinet to the dawn chorus of Indris crying, couas calling, and vangas scolding, or to hike the gallery forest of Berenty followed by troops of Ring-tailed Lemurs while Black Parrots and Cuckoo-Rollers fly overhead and giant fruit bats rise on noisy, leathery wings is truly to feel one is returning to a living remnant of the Eocene era--the Earth as it might have appeared fifty million years ago.

Extension
We've added an optional extension to the wonderful Masoala Peninsula, the largest remnant of tropical forest remaining in Madagascar, where the mythical Helmet Vanga is the big draw, along with Bernier's Vanga and an assortment of other rare birds and restricted-range lemurs.

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