Birding Madagascar Masoala Peninsula Birding Ecotours

14-day “Best of Madagascar” birding and wildlife tour - plus optional extensions

Birding Madagascar photo by Errol de Beer

Madagascar! Our world’s fourth largest island is, quite simply, unique. Five bird families and five mammal families (including the lemurs) are endemic to this massive island, and half the world’s chameleons, weird and wonderful endemic plant families and tons of other wildlife can be found here. An astonishing 120 bird species are endemic – including such exotic groups as vangas, ground- rollers, cuckoo rollers, couas, asities and mesites. Lemurs vie for attention, from the tiny mouse-lemurs to the marvelous sifakas and the amazing Indri with its calls that resound through the forest. Our tour visits a range of habitats; grasslands, dry deciduous woodland, the bizarre spiny Didiera forest (with its odd octopus and elephant’s-foot trees), lush eastern rainforest as well as lagoons and mudflats. The birds that we’ll look for include the roadrunner-like Long-tailed Ground-roller and the stunning Pitta-like, Scaly and Rufous-headed Ground-Rollers to the highly-prized Subdesert Mesite, the unforgettable Giant Coua, spectacular vangas, the astounding Velvet Asity and Madagascar Crested Ibis, to name just a handful. We invite you to join us on a special tour to an amazing island! The Masoala Peninsula extension can generate the unbelievable Helmet Vanga, Brown Mesite, Short-legged Ground-roller, the largest nocturnal lemur, Aye-aye and a stack more.

Like many of Madagascar’s birds, Subdesert Mesite is very strange indeed! (Photo by Ian Merrill)

Day 1: International flight arrives in Antananarivo (shortened to “Tana” by most people!). After arrival, we immediately embark on a 3-hour drive to Andasibe, one of Madagascar’s premier rainforest sites. Here, the unforgettable call of Indri resounds through the beautiful Mantadia and Perinet forests. We find this lemur with ease, along with other spectacularly beautiful species such as Black-and-white Ruffed Lemur. Birding is unbelievable, with FOUR different Ground-rollers possible, along with both nightjars including the bizarre Collared Nightjar at its daytime roosts. Madagascar Long-eared Owl, Rainforest Scops Owl and a suite of nocturnal lemurs and chameleons await us on a night walk in the area.

Days 2-3: We spend two more nights in Andasibe, birding the beautiful primary and secondary forests of the area. We should find Velvet Asity, Common Sunbird-asity, Forest Rock-thrush, Madagascar Flufftail, many vangas including Madagascar Blue Vanga, Nuthatch Vanga and several others, Madagascar Blue Pigeon, Madagascar Cuckoo-shrike, several endemic warblers such as Rand’s Warbler, and more. We have stakeouts for Madagascar Grebe, the rare Meller’s Duck and Madagascar Rail. We expect our first couas, Red-fronted Coua being a likely candidate. We should see a few new lemurs such as Black-and-white Ruffed Lemur. We certainly don’t ignore other non-avian wildlife, and often see Giraffe-necked Weavil, Tree Boa and many chameleons.

Giraffe-necked Weevil is often found in this area (Photo by Fabienne Raphoz)

Days 4-7: We embark on a long, scenic, road trip, breaking the journey to amazing RANOMAFANA NATIONAL PARK in the south-east of the island with one night in Madagascar’s second largest city, Antsirabe. We hope to see many of Madagascar and its neighboring islands’ common endemics en route to the national park, including species such as Madagascar Wagtail, Malagasy Malachite Kingfisher, Mascarene Martin, Malagasy Kestrel, Malagasy Bulbul and many others. Reaching Ranomafana, we are in for a real treat. The rainforest here is similar to that at Andasibe, but is a better place for several species we won’t yet have seen, such as the rare Yellow-bellied Sunbird-asity, the recently described Cryptic Warbler, Yellow-browed Oxylabes, Grey-crowned Greenbul, Pollen’s Vanga, Grey Emutail, Wedge-tailed Jery, Madagascar Snipe and numerous others. As always in a new part of the island, we expect new lemurs, such as Golden Bamboo Lemur. Reptiles include Leaf-tailed Gecko.

Day 8: After final birding at Ranomafana, hoping to clean up there, we begin another scenic road trip across the island. Today, we start heading westwards, to much dryer parts. We’ll spend one night in the beautifully picturesque Isalo National Park. Here, we’ll search for some more star birds, such as Benson’s Rock-thrush and the attractively-patterned Madagascar Partridge.

birding madagascar sickle-billed vanga photo by ian merril
Sickle-billed Vanga lurks in the spiny forests (Photo by Ian Merril)

Day 9: We head towards the spiny forests of the south-west. This will be like entering a completely new world, and there is nothing else like this weird landscape anywhere in the world – Africa, although geographically close by, is nothing like Madagascar in landscape or wildlife. Baobabs and Diedera trees provide an absolutely unique habitat for a host of sought-after Madagascar endemics. However, before reaching these spiny forests, we first have another fascinating drive that should generate some of Madagascar’s most localized birds, as well as a detour that includes a boat trip. Continuing our drive westwards towards the spiny forests, we stop at a unique dry deciduous forest inhabited by the critically endangered Appert’s Greenbul, Coquerel’s Coua, the incomparable Cuckoo Roller which we often see displaying, and various other goodies. Then we bird a coastal site further west for two incredibly localized species endemic to “coral rag scrub”, Verreaux’s Coua and Red-shouldered Vanga. We should also start finding our first of more widespread dry area birds, including Subdesert Brush-warbler and others.

Day 10: We do a boat trip to the island of Nosy Ve, where we look at breeding Red-tailed Tropicbirds. We also visit our site for Littoral Rock-thrush. We should see various other new trip birds as well.

Madagascar is full of chameleons, from the tiniest on the planet to the most massive (Photo by Fabienne Raphoz)

Days 11-12: A world away from the eastern rainforests, after much anticipation we now bird the spiny forests near Ifaty for such incredible birds as Long-tailed Ground-roller, Subdesert Mesite, Sickle-billed Vanga, Archbold’s Newtonia, Banded Kestrel, Thamnornis Warbler, Lafresnaye’s Vanga, Green-capped Coua, Running Coua and others. We also visit a site for Madagascar Plover.

longtailed groundroller
Long-tailed Ground-roller (Photo by Ian Merril)

Day 13: We fly back to Tana and bird sites around the fascinating capital city for Sooty Falcon, Eleonora’s Falcon, Malagasy Pond Heron and many other birds.

Day 14: After final birding, your international flight leaves Tana.

MASOALA PENINSULA EXTENSION:

Day 14: We fly to Maroantsetra and take a boat trip across the bay of Antongil, Madagascar’s largest bay, past the island of Nosy Mangabe, and eventually get to the Masoala Peninsula which contains Madagascar’s largest tract of lowland rainforest.

The luminous blue bill of Helmet Vanga is often the first you see of this bird as it sits on its nest – but when it stands up the bright chestnut and black plumage can be too much to handle – it’s one of the most spectacular birds in the world (Photo by Fabiene Raphoz)

Days 15-17: We bird the incredible forests and remote tropical beaches of Masoala National Park for some of Madagascar’s most awesome birds, including Madagascar Pratincole, Crested Coua, Blue Coua, HELMET VANGA, Short-legged Ground-roller, Brown Mesite and many other sought-after birds. There are some incredible lemurs here, including Red-ruffed Lemur and Red-fronted Brown Lemur.

Day 18: We spend a night back on the mainland near the Masoala Peninsula looking for all kinds of goodies such as White-throated Rail, Grey-headed Lovebird and many others. We also do an evening walk that could generate AYE-AYE, Tomato Frog, Lowland Steaked Tenrec and others.

Two wonderful animals – Tomato Frog and Lowland Streaked Tenrec (Photos by Fabienne Raphoz)

Day 19: We fly back to Tana and home or onto further extensions

Price of Masoala Extension – please e-mail info@birdingecotours.co.za

ADDITIONAL EXTENSIONS:
Please note that Madagascar is a huge island and we offer an extra 12 days as well which gives a full month in Madagascar, which means you see 80 % or more of the endemics. In addition to this, we offer remote extensions for some of Madagascar’s toughest endemics including Madagascar Serpent-eagle, Madagascar Red Owl, Madagascar Pochard and Sakalava Rail.

red owl
Madagascar Red Owl by Lily Arison – to see this, a remote extension is needed

Itinerary:

Duration: 14 days + extensions

Limit: 6 - 12

Date: October 2012 & 2013

Start: Antananarivo (Tana)

End: Antananarivo (Tana)

Price of 14-day “Best of Madagascar” trip: 3776 euros (about US$4807 at the current exchange rate) per person sharing, based on a group size of 8 birders. The price is higher for a smaller group - 4407 euros (about US$5610).
Single supplement 495 euros (about US$630). Please note that these prices are for 2012 only.

Price of Masoala extension: 1563 euros (about US$1990) per person sharing assuming 8 tour participants. The price is higher for a smaller group - 1720 euros (about US$2189).

Prices_Include:

Meals

Accommodation

Guiding fees

Entrance fees

All transport while on tour

Bottled water throughout tour

Prices_Exclude:

International flights

Items of a personal nature, e.g. gifts

Laundry

Personal insurance

Gratuities