FRANCE

Our southern France Camargue & Pyrenees itinerary combines biodiversity with lovely landscapes, charming villages, and delicious local cuisine. It's a delightful area for birders, celebrated for its rich diversity of habitats and species. From shimmering wetlands to rugged limestone hills, the region offers memorable encounters for both novice and seasoned birdwatchers.

The vast wetland of the Camargue in the Rhône river delta is world-famous for its flocks of pink Greater Flamingos, elegant herons, egrets, and a dazzling array of shorebirds. The reed beds and lagoons are alive with warblers, gulls, and terns, while rice fields and salt meadows attract avocets, stilts, and the striking Slender-billed Gull. Fall migration, the time of our visit, brings large numbers of birds through the region, making every visit a spectacle. Along our route is the only true steppe in France, La Crau, home to Eurasian Thick-knees, Little Bustards, Lesser Kestrels, and Iberian Gray Shrikes, while Eurasian Eagle-Owl is a possibility in the limestone hills.

To the west, the mountainous areas of the Pyrenees offer sightings of Eurasian Griffon and Bearded Vulture, migrating raptors, Black Woodpecker, Alpine Accentor, Crested Tit, Citril Finch, and Yellow-billed Chough, with dramatic scenery as a backdrop.

Our Birds, Chateaux & Wine itinerary through the Loire Valley offers the chance to combine three very different delights: birding, exploring some of the Loire’s magnificent chateaux, and savoring numerous vintages in one of France's most important wine-producing regions.

We'll spend our mornings in the field visiting riverine habitats and lakes for a variety of gulls, shorebirds, and waterfowl; deciduous forests for various woodpeckers, tits, and many others; and grasslands for Eurasian Thick-knee, Montagu's Harrier, and perhaps even Little Bustard. On most afternoons, our goal will be visits to chateaux and vineyards. It's a wonderful way to spend 10 days birding and relaxing in France.

Photo credit: Our thanks to participant Eileen Wheeler for the great image of our group at Lac des Gloriettes in the Pyrenees at the top of this page.

We offer other EUROPE birding tours, too!