Combining your love of walking and birdwatching holidays

We often prepare for a holiday by learning a few phrases from the local language or by checking the weather forecast to see what we should pack. Seldom do we familiarise ourselves with the local birdlife, their songs or species, their habitats or migratory patterns. If you love birds and also love walking, it’s always a treat to combine the two and, although we don’t offer bespoke birdwatching holidays, we do have hiking itineraries that share trails with some stunning species. Trails where you can also become a citizen scientist, by sharing data of sightings along the way. Or where you can just get up extra early to hear the dawn chorus. Here are some of our top trails for tweets and birding treats.

Rhodope Mountains, Bulgaria

Keen birders flock to Bulgaria for the proliferation of birds of prey hovering over their mountain habitats. Some of the beauties to espy include golden eagles, griffon vultures, peregrine falcons and kestrels in the Rhodope Mountains. There have also been recordings of a few rare black vultures and Egyptian vultures on the neighbouring Greek side of the Rhodopes. The Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds is a nest of knowledge on species and locations and the best time to go to Bulgaria for birding is spring migration which comes to a head in May, with autumn migration creating some excellent sightings from mid to late September.

Griffon vultures in the Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria.

Islands and highlands, Scotland

From crossbills to capercaillies, puffins to peregrine falcons, Scotland is teeming with birdlife. So pack your binoculars and read up on the tens of thousands of Scottish species that you might spot on our Scottish holidays. One of the best resources is Scottish Wildlife Trust, which not only lists its species but also manages 120 wildlife reserves around the country. Between the months of April and June is a great time to witness many birds returning from their wintering grounds to Scotland, including the arrival of several species of warblers, wheatears, and swallows. On the West Highland Way, you definitely want to bring your binoculars to spot chiffchaffs and willow warblers, which you will often hear before you see them.

On the Great Glen Way, the forests are bursting with birdsong in spring too, including bullfinches, great spotted woodpeckers, great tits and grey wagtails. The waters of all the lochs that line the famous valley attract a variety of birds including the great cormorant, mute swan and heron. You get many of these along the West Highland Way too, but between April and September its higher elevations are also home to buzzards, osprey and the avian monarchs, the white tailed and golden eagle.

In summer, particularly from June to August, you can observe a range of seabirds along the Scottish coastline, including puffins, razorbills and guillemots. On our Isle of Skye holidays, for example, keep an eye out for golden eagles or ptarmigans in and around the Cuillin Mountains, but for puffins you have to take a boat trip from Skye to the Isle of Canna, with April and May being the best months to see their colonies.

Our co-founder Peter Duncan, a keen birdwatcher, keeps an eye out for birds on the Great Glen Way in Scotland.

Curonian Spit National Park, Lithuania

Birds of a feather stick together in Lithuania’s Curonian Spit National Park, coming in every year during spring and autumn to relax in the dunes and pine forests. A good birdwatching spot is Nagliai Nature Reserve, where species include peregrine and red-legged falcons, brown kites and pink starlings, as well as gaggles of geese, swans and ducks during September. At Nemunas Delta, Ventė Cape is billowing with binocular wearers during the autumn migration, as millions of birds such as golden oriole and yellowhammers, cuckoos and corncrakes head south. Visit the Ventė Cape Ornithological Station and observation tower for a fine view of all the incoming birds’ habitats.

Gauja National Park, Latvia

Go birdwatching and indeed bird listening in Gauja National Park where generously forested slopes and riverfronts are habitat to woodpeckers, grouse, Ural owls and many more, all wanting to be heard. As does the creaky-sounding corncrake in the river meadows, now rare in other parts of Europe. Covering 917.86 km², half of Gauja National Park is a healthy blanket of towering conifers, birch, linden, white alder and aspen, all of which you can explore on this two week walking holiday or this 12 day hiking tour of the Baltics.

Carpathian Mountains, Romania

Romania’s Carpathian landscapes are recognised by international conservation organisations, such as the WWF, as hugely important habitats. As well as being home to over 6,000 brown bears, 4,000 wolves and 2,000 Eurasian lynx, the limestone ridges and gorges, hills and valleys on our walking holidays are home to a bevy of birdlife. These include golden eagles, alpine swifts, black woodpeckers and songbirds such as goldcrests, firecrests and crossbills. They are also an important habitat for Ural owls but, as they are nocturnal, you may only be lucky to see them at dusk or dawn. You are unlikely to see the mountains’ mammals, however, as wolves and lynx in particular are very elusive, but you definitely want to bring your binoculars on these trips. And your bear bell.

The Carpathians create the perfect valleys for seeking prey.

Aiguamolls de l’Empordà Natural Park, Spain

Thankfully this wetland wonder in the Bay of Roses was protected by Natural Park status in the 1980s to avoid development, leaving it as a habitat for over 300 species of birds, including cormorants and flamingoes, as well as fallow deer. With wetlands, reed-lined paths, dunes and saltwater lagoons, it covers 48.24km² and is stunning walking terrain as you can see on both this Costa Brava walking holiday and our Costa Brava highlights walking holiday. As these tours run between February and November, you have choices when it comes to birding, with thousands of birds descending in the migratory seasons of February to June and July to October. If there’s a northerly wind in spring, late April and early May are peak times for flamingo, heron, falcon and an array of waders joining the throngs.

Foraging flamingoes in Aiguamolls de l’Empordà Natural Park. What’s not to love here?

Wicklow Mountains National Park, Ireland

One of six national parks in Ireland, this vast open bogland, with rounded bronze coloured peaks and heathlands, is home to a fine collection of birds, including ravens, red grouse, skylarks, meadow pipits, peregrine falcons and merlin. If you’re really lucky, you may spot a ring ouzel, which is an endangered thrush. The best way to explore the national park is by walking the The Wicklow Way, which dips in and out of the park for 132km, visiting some of its most magnificent natural heritage highlights along the way, such as Glendalough, Powerscourt Waterfall, Glenmalure Valley and various Wicklow Mountains.

Skellig Islands, Ireland

One of Ireland’s other greatest habitats for birdwatching is the Skelligs in Kerry, two steep rocky islands that lie 13km off the Kerry Coast. They are protected bird colonies with one of the largest northern gannet colonies in the world, as well as European storm petrels, fulmars, Manx shearwaters, kittiwakes and over 4,000 puffins. The puffins arrive in late spring and gannets in March and by April they’ve taken over the place. There’s a rest day built into our Kerry Way walking holiday so that you can take an optional boat trip out to these spectacular islands. Don’t miss it. It’s so out of this world that they shot Star Wars here.

The Skelligs are stars when it comes to birdlife in Ireland.

Corfu, Greece

If you’re familiar with the work of Gerald Durrell, Corfu’s most famous resident, then you’ll know that wildlife is a big feature of Corfu and, in particular, birds. In fact, Korission Lagoon is like the main runway at Heathrow at certain times of year, where sand dunes, reed beds and its shallow waters are a safe haven for over 130 species of migratory birds. These include black-winged stilts, Kentish plovers, greater flamingos, Sardinian warblers and European bee-eaters. Our walking holiday along the complete Corfu Trail, a 200km adventure into this Ionian idyll, takes you right past the lagoon, as does our five day walking break and our eight day hiking highlights tour. The best times to hike there for birding are spring and summer, and our tours are perfectly timed to flit alongside the flocks.

“*My childhood in Corfu shaped my life. If I had the craft of Merlin, I would give every child the gift of my childhood*.” – Gerald Durrell

If you’d like to do some citizen science on your travels and digitally record any bird sightings, check out BirdTrack for UK and Ireland and Merlin from Cornell Lab of Ornithology. There are also many apps for identifying birds, not just recording their presence for scientific research and these include Merlin, Seek, iNaturalist and Collins Bird guide. If you have other enquiries about any of these holidays, our adventure specialists are always chirpy and ready to help.