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The Jungle BabblerEarly 2014

Papua New GuineaMadagascarGalapagosAustralia’s Top End

The Tropical Birding NewsletterIn this Issue:BIRDING TOUR SUMMARIES:

PHOTO TOUR GALLERIES: Australia, Taiwan & Falkland Islands

Eastern AustraliaCentral PeruEcuador: The Andes Introtour

South America... Australia...

Asia...

Tropical Birding

WHAT’S NEW AT TB: Events, new tours, tour updates, books published

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Papua New GuineaCustom tourSept-Oct 2013Guided by Sam Woods

Inevitably, most birders are attracted to this heavily forested island for a shot at the most spectacular bird family on the planet, the birds-of-paradise. So let’s deal with that issue first; we saw plenty of species from this family (23 birds-of-paradise seen by all), and enjoyed phenomenal views of some of them to boot. Their appeal was proven by the fact that 5 slots on the Birds-of-the-Tour list were filled with “BOPs”: King-of-Saxony Bird-of-Paradise, which boasts both a long name, and extraordinarily feathered antennae; Lesser “BOP”, with its

delicate golden-yellow display plumes; Crested “BOP” (now reclassified in a new family, the “Satinbirds”), the male of which is a vivid fire-orange; Ribbon-tailed Astrapia, a male of which was seen with its long, and beautiful, ivory-white tail and metallic green head; and finally, the Raggiana Bird-of-Paradise, PNG’s national bird, which was appropriately voted as the bird of the trip as a result of the remarkable views of a male in full display, seen just outside the capital at the end of the trip.

However, PNG boasts many spec-tacular birds from outside this family too, which we were treated to also, including all three jewel-babblers (with the views of a Chestnut-backed

in Varirata be unrivaled, leading to its inclusion in the Top Birds of the Tour list). Parrots abound in the wilds of New Guinea, and we enjoyed over 20 parrot species, including repeated, super, looks at the delicious Papuan Lorikeet, and the usual, excellent views of Brehm’s Tiger-Parrots on the Kumul Lodge bird table. Pigeons also featured heavily (24 pigeon species), with the largest of them all, Southern Crowned Pigeon seen on the banks of the Ketu River in one of the remotest regions in the coun-try, which also yielded King Bird-of-Paradise, pole-dancing Twelve-wired Bird-of-Paradise, and a set of very special kingfishers, including Common and Little Paradise-Kingfishers, Hook-billed King-

This male Ribbon-tailed Astrapia (a bird-of-paradise) literally stalked one of the group around the lodge! (Sam Woods)

Papua New Guineatour summary

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fisher, and Rufous-bellied Kook-aburra. Another pigeon that must be mentioned is Pheasant Pigeon, which, remarkably, was seen on three separate occasions, leading to a rare case of good views for the entire group.

The spectacular and odd appealing birds did not end there, with oth-ers like Garnet Robin, Wattled Ploughbill, two species of pitta, Emperor Fairywren, Long-billed Cuckoo, Barred Owlet-Nightjar, Papuan Frogmouth, Palm Cock-atoo, Forest Bittern (a lifer for all of the group, guide included), Regent Whistler, and the beautiful Fairy Lorikeet all featuring, and proving, PNG, the so-called “Land of the Un-expected”, is more than “just” about birds-of-paradise. FULL REPORT HERE

Regent Whistler was delightfully common in the highlands (Sam Woods)

Papua New Guineatour summary

Our next PNG tour is scheduled for 7 - 24 July 2014; with a New Britain Extension for 24 - 28 July 2014.

Raggiana BOP: The close-ups of PNG’s national bird displaying in Varirata ensured this was a shoe-in for BIRD-of-the-TOUR (Sam Woods)

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MadagascarThe Eighth ContinentOct-Nov 2013Guided by Ken Behrens

Madagascar has long been a core des-tination for TB, and with the opening of a satellite office in the country, we have further solidified our expertise in the “Eighth Continent.” This set-departure tour included the North-western Endemics Pre-Trip at the

start and the Helmet Vanga extension at the end.

The birding was great; we sighted al-most all of the island’s endemic birds. As usual, the highlight was seeing all five of the incredible ground-roll-ers, from the roadrunner-like Long-tailed of the spiny forest to the wonderful rainforest-dwelling Scaly. There was a strong cast of vangas, including Helmet, Bernier’s, and

Sickle-billed Vangas. As normal, the couas were also a favorite. From the shy and beautiful Red-breasted of the eastern rainforest to the huge Giant Coua of the dry western for-est, we were looking at couas every day! The bizarre mesites form a Mala-gasy endemic family, and we had su-perb extended views of all three members of the Mesite family. The asities form yet another endem-ic family, and we saw all of its mem-bers including the Schlegel’s As-ity and the rare Yellow-bellied Sunbird-Asity.

Madagascar Crested Ibis is one of the toughest birds on this tour, but this year we were treated to the sight of not just one, but two active nests! We also had excellent perched views of Madagascar Sparrowhawk, Henst’s Goshawk, and Madagas-car Cuckoo-Hawk, some of the is-land’s most elusive raptors. The Crab Plover was undoubtedly the best of a range of shorebirds seen. Owls and nightjars were well represented too; we had daytime looks at two scops-owls, Madagscar Long-eared Owl, Marsh Owl, White-browed Owl, and Collared Night-jar.

OK, so I have established that the birding was great. But in Madagascar the birding is only part of the story. Of course, we run birding tours, and the birds have priority in some sense. However, one of the amazing things about tours to this island is that you can also see an astounding array of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and other wildlife, without sacrificing a single bird. Sometimes birding tours see more mammals than devoted mammaling tours! Actually, the best sighting on our tour was a mammal, and not a bird: the bizarre and rarely seen Aye-aye, which we observed at close range for almost an hour dur-Standout mammal sighting was Aye-aye photographed by Leslie Clapp

Madagascartour summary

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ing an eventful night walk. Overall, we recorded 45 mammals, of which 35 were lemurs, from the tiny mouse-lemurs up to Indri, the largest living species.

This was also an exceptional tour for reptiles and amphibians. We racked up 62 species of reptiles, which is a new record for Tropical Birding or any other birding tour company as far as I know. The chameleons alone showed incredible diversity; we saw 14 chameleon species, including the world’s two largest chameleons, and one of its smallest. The best of a bounty of geckos was the Giant Leaf-tailed Gecko, one of the best-camouflaged animals on earth. Snakes were amazing too, (and none of Mada-gascar’s snakes are considered overtly

Schlegel’s Asity sports dramatic eye make-up (Ken Behrens)

Madagascar is also home to many cool reptiles (Ken Behrens)

Our next Madagascar departure is scheduled for 6 - 22 November 2014

Madagascartour summary

dangerous to humans). We notched up 12 species of snakes, seeing several individuals of many of these species.

We identified 2 4 species o f frogs too, again one of the highest totals ever for a Madagascar birding trip. Madagascar is certainly rich in won-derful birds, and we enjoyed these to the fullest. But its range of mammals, reptiles, and amphibians is just as won-drous and accessible, and a trip that ignored them would be sorely miss-ing out. As an overall natural history experience this trip was hard to beat, with nothing lost by taking this all in, as the hard-core birders got their key species too. Apparently, in Madagascar, you can have your cake and eat it too! FULL REPORT HERE

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Australia’s Top EndVictoria River to Kakadu Oct 2013

Eastern AustraliaTop to BottomNov 2013Guided by Nick Leseberg

After not running a Top End tour in 2012, I was excited to be doing the “double-header” again in 2013, with a 10-day Top End tour rolling straight into our Eastern Australia tour for a four-week. Australian birding bonan-za! It was a very successful trip, and we scored more than 480 species of bird and 43 mammals. Conditions in the Top End were hot, as expect-ed, but we still knocked over most of our targets. Highlights included a brilliant Rainbow Pitta perched only meters away; a family party of the very cute Purple-crowned

Fairywren; and of course that jewel of the Top End, the stunning Goul-dian Finch. Moving on to Eastern Australia we kicked off with a week around Cairns where we found Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfishers,

Golden Bowerbird and after a bit of effort (and much finger-nail chew-ing on my part!), an immense South-ern Cassowary. A night spotlighting on the Atherton Tableland produced an incredible THREE Lumholtz’s

While the Rainbow Pitta may be local, it is not hard to find, and was easily seen on this tour (Nick Leseberg)

AUSTRALIANtour summaries

As usual, Plains-wanderer stole the headlines in Eastern Australia (Nick Leseberg)

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Tree-Kangaroos, while other non-birding highlights included snorkel-ing among clouds of fish and coral on the Great Barrier Reef. Leaving Cairns we headed south to Brisbane for a couple of nights at the amazing O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat. Here we had point-blank views of the shy Al-bert’s Lyrebird plus a very obliging Noisy Pitta. Spotlighting produced Marbled Frogmouth and Sooty Owl plus that fluffy Australian icon, Koala. Moving on to Sydney we set out on our New South Wales odyssey, dodging some weather along the way, but picking up plenty of good birds. At Round Hill the glistening Splen-did Fairywren drew gasps from the group, while at Hay our spotlighting trip with Phil Maher produced a fan-tastic pair of Plains-wanderers, a very deserving winner of bird-of-the-trip. The final section of the trip took us to Tasmania, where we mopped up all the Tasmanian endemics including a nesting Forty-spotted Pardalote, one of Australia’s rarest birds. The tour finished with a bang on our last night as we sat quietly on a secluded beach until just after sunset, waiting for the squad of Little Penguins that eventually came waddling out of the surf. They were the last bird of the trip and a great way to wrap up 2 fan-tastic tours. CLICK FOR FULL REPORTS: EASTERN AUSTRALIA - AUSTRALIA'S TOP END

This fearsome Powerful Owl was seen near Sydney (Nick Leseberg)

AUSTRALIANtour summaries

The next scheduled departures for these tours are:

Australia’s Top End: 16 - 24 October 2014

Eastern Australia:25 October - 13 November 2014

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Central PeruCustom tourNov 2014Guided by Andrew Spencer

Peru is legendary among birders – perhaps no other country in the trop-ics carries the name cache of this su-per-diverse nation. But most of those same birders typically visit the south-ern part, where famed locales such as Manu and Machu Picchu draw tourists in there thousands. Fewer make the trek to northern Peru, and fewer still make it to the endemic rich center.And that fact is a real shame – more

Golden-backed Tanager; a good reason alone to come to Central Peru! (Andrew Spencer)

Central Perutour summary

than any other part of Peru, the cen-ter of the country is just chock-full of rare and spectacular endemic birds. Combine that with the best scenery in the country and some truly gor-geous habitat, and you have a winning combination. This tour was Tropical Birding’s first to the central part of Peru, and I must say that it was wildly successful! We managed nearly every one of our target species plus a num-ber of unexpected surprises, and had some amazing luck with the weather in a place and time of year that could have been significantly worse.While the avian highlights were myr-

iad, we did get some of the best and rarest birds in South America. Two of Peru’s flagship genus, Inca-Finch, were found (Great and Rufous-backed Inca-Finches), along with a goodly number of other dry-country special-ties that included the extremely lo-cal Purple-backed Sunbeam, and endemics Bronze-tailed Comet and Rusty-bellied Brush-Finch. The unique White-cheeked Cot-inga gave us a bit of a workout as we tromped around at sky-high eleva-tions, but in the end we managed both the rare cotinga and a bonus Tawny Tit-Spinetail and Ash-breasted

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Tit-Tyrant. A boat journey on Lake Junin produced the rarest (in terms of population) species of the trip, in the form of the critically endangered Junin Grebe. But it was two locations located in the temperate forest zones that gave us our highest quality species. Our day at the famed Bosque Unchog was nothing short of magical – per-fect weather worked together with exceptionally cooperative birds to have us walking away with the stun-ning Golden-backed Mountain-Tanager, the weird Rufous-browed Hemispingus, the local Bay-vent-ed Cotinga, and much more, all in a single morning! And the remote and gorgeous Satipo Road didn’t dis-appoint either, with an undescribed “Chestnut” Antpitta, “Mantaro” Wren, “Mantaro” Thornbird, and recently described Junin Tapaculo all showing well. Nowhere else in South America can you so easily get so many undescribed species! The full report is coming soon.

There are no scheduled departures in 2014, with the next Central Peru tour scheduled in 2015. This White-eared Solitaire put on a show (Andrew Spencer)

Central Perutour summary

The extremely local Junin Grebe was seen very close during a special boat trip on the lake (Andrew Spencer)

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EcuadorThe Andes Introtour& High Andes ExtensionDec 2014Guided by Sam Woods

This is Tropical Birding’s most popu-lar tour, and it is easy to understand why. Although, not apparently, a num-bers tour (i.e. the trip list is not the be-end-and-end-all of this tour, like some others), we still racked up 380 species by dipping into sites at vari-ous altitudes readily accessible from our well positioned base, Tandayapa Bird Lodge. This included a healthy batch from two particular “celeb-rity groups”, the hummingbirds (45 hummingbird species), and tana-gers (60+ “tanagers”). Many of the hummers were readily seen, due to visits made to 5 different sets of feed-ers, making stunning birds like Vel-vet-purple Coronet, Violet and Long-tailed Sylphs, Booted Rack-et-tails, Empress Brilliant, Pur-ple-bibbed Whitetip, and Sword-billed Hummingbirds not only easily seen, but readily photographed

too. The tanagers seen comprised of some of the most beautiful birds of the entire trip, from the Scarlet-bellied Mountain-Tanagers which opened the batting for this group on our opening day at Yanacocha, to the Grass-green Tanager which closed our list for the main tour in the Tan-dayapa Valley; others seen included one of the most ridiculously named of all birds, Superciliaried Hemisp-ingus, and two further stunners, in the form of the local Glistening-green Tanager in the misty moun-tain forests of Mashpi, and a delec-table Flame-faced Tanager which we watched over lunch visiting a busy fruit feeder.There was plenty more, besides these groups, on the main tour as we covered elevations from as high as 3400m/11,150ft in the temperate zone, down to the lower foothills at 350m/1150ft. Orange-breasted Fruiteaters, while being a local en-demic, were popular for their flashy plumage rather than their scarcity; and the aptly-named Beautiful Jay and the must-see Plate-billed

Mountain-Toucan were both found within the Tandayapa Valley. Seven antpitta species, a usually difficult to see group of birds, were racked up by the end of the tour, with 3 species in one morning at a private reserve which has shot to fame, as a result of the successful antpitta feeding pio-neered on site. In the foothills the dis-plays of the Club-winged Manakins were both comical and much appre-ciated, leading to its inclusion within the top ten birds of the tour list; and multicolored Toucan Barbets per-formed well in this altitudinal zone too; while a day roosting male Lyre-tailed Nightjar had us all admiring its remarkably long tail. The lowest site of the entire tour produced the highest day-list of the tour, with more than 130 species recorded including a male Scarlet-breasted Dacnis and a much-loved Barred Puffbird. One of the final finales of the main tour was an unforgettable visit to the best Andean Cock-of-the-rock lek (display site) in the country, and the unrivaled looks at bright scarlet males dancing at dawn was such a site to be-

Among the breathtaking scenery of Antisana a troop of Black-faced Ibis were found (Sam Woods)

Ecuadortour summary

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hold it easily won the bird of the tour vote (on the main tour).

Our small group of just four people for the main tour was halved on the High Andes Extension, which, while only two days long, produced a further 50 species not found on the first section of the tour, and in-cluded some of the very best sightings of the entire tour. By reaching up to the heady heights of 4300m/14,100ft we got to bird at two different par-amo sites, which produced excellent views of Ecuador’s national bird, the massive Andean Condor; a mad run up to the highest point of the tour, where, even with thick low cloud roll-ing in, we shockingly still found a pair of Rufous-bellied Seedsnipes for-aging alongside the road; unlike many of the other, feeder-based, humming-birds Ecuadorian Hillstar made us work for it, and by staking out their favored orange flowers we eventu-ally had great looks at a crisp, pur-ple-hooded male; masses of ground-feeding Carunculated Caracaras made for not only great looks, but plentiful photos, while a small party of Black-faced Ibises fed on the wind-swept paramo nearby. Our final lodge of the tour, Guango, brought memo-rable moments from their crowded hummingbird feeders, to the family

Ecuador’s magnificent national bird; the immense Andean Condor (Sam Woods)

Ecuadortour summary

of Torrent Ducks surfing the rapids to a Chestnut-crowned Antpitta bouncing along a trail ahead of us, to a shock Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucan which caused an emergency stop along the roadside. You might re-alize from this short summary, there were many, many avian highlights on what is quite a short tour. It was a marvelous introduction to the Andes, with an abundance of both colorful

species and a healthy set of endemics too, to keep both the new birder and the budding lister more than happy with their haul. FULL REPORT HERE

The heartstopping Velvet-purple Coronet was popular with all (Sam Woods)

There are multiple scheduled departures in 2014; in June, August, October and December.

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Australiatour gallery

Eric realized he had overdone it by bringing a 500mm lens to photograph a Crimson Rosella (Iain Campbell)

Spotted Pardalote has oodles of character (Iain Campbell)

Last fall, Iain Campbell led another TB photo tour in his native Australia...

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Australiatour gallery

Hooded Parrot may be rare, but it’s easy to shoot (Iain Campbell)Yellow Waters proved, again, a great place to shoot Little Kingfishers (Iain Campbell)

Red-backed Fairywren; Fairwrens are both stunning and highly approachable (Iain Campbell)

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Australiatour gallery

Red-collared Lorikeets scuffle over a water tap in the arid Top End of Australia (Iain Campbell)

Jose illustrates quite how approachable some of the wildlife in Australia can be! (Iain Campbell)

The next scheduled Australia Photo Journey is:26 September - 11 October 2014

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Taiwantour gallery

The Mikado Pheasant used to be missable; no longer due to an innovative local photography community (Keith Barnes)

Buddhism, Taoism & Confucianism are parts of everyday life in Taiwan (Keith Barnes)

Mammals are few in Taiwan, but they’re spectacular like this Red-and-white Giant Flying Squirrel (Keith Barnes)

Common waterbirds can be found in myriad local rice paddies or waterways that occur wherever Taiwan is flat (Keith Barnes)

In fall 2013, Keith Barnes led a TB photo tour through his adopted homeland, Taiwan...

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Taiwantour gallery

Fights break out over which Taiwanese pheasant is the most beautiful; this is the easy-to-shoot Swinhoe’s (Keith Barnes)

Both the endemic Swinhoe’s and Mikado Pheasants are incredibly easy to photograph now (Keith Barnes)

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Taiwantour gallery

Varied Tit is a real looker (Keith Barnes) Taiwan Whistling-Thrush is a roadside endemic (Keith Barnes)

Taiwan was dubbed “Isla Formosa” (“Beautiful Island”) by the first Portuguese settlers; It has the highest density in the world of peaks over 9000ft/2750m (Keith Barnes)

The next scheduled Taiwan Photo Journey is:Spring 2015

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Falkland Islandstour gallery

This elephant seal took a shine to Iain King Penguin preens at 4am in the Falklands (Iain Campbell)

A Gentoo Penguin surfs straight up to the group (Iain Campbell)

In early winter Iain Campbell led the inaugral TB photo tour to the Falkland Islands...

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Snowy Sheathbills may look clean and presentable, though they’re known to eat penguin feces! (Iain Campbell)

After a long time away at sea a Magellanic Penguin greets its partner back to the colony while bathed in late evening light (Iain Campbell)

Falkland Islandstour gallery

The next scheduled Falkland Islands Photo Journey is:29 November - 13 December 2014

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What’s New at TB?

Florida’s Birding and Photo FestSt. Augustine, FL30 April – 4 May 2014

Join TB owner Iain Campbell and TB General Manager Cristina Cer-vantes at North America’s biggest birding and photography event. TB will have stand on site, and a repre-sentative from Tandayapa Bird Lodge, in Ecuador will be running a mini-workshop on Hummingbird Multi-Flash Photography. While this this kind of photography often appears very complex and is considered ex-tremely challenging; this workshop will go through a relatively simple method for achieving excellent hum-mingbird flight photos, with the mini-mum of fuss, and previous expertise required to achieve the results.

San Diego Bird FestivalSan Diego, CA27 Feb – 2 March

Join Tropical Birding owners and guides Keith Barnes and Iain Campbell on the TB stand at Cali-fornia’s biggest bird festival.

High Island Spring MigrationHigh Island, TX29 Mar - 4 May

For the 7th consecutive year the Houston Audubon Society (HAS) and Tropical Birding Tours (TB) will be working together to bring you FREE guided walks during the peak of spring migration in High Island and the surrounding areas. There will be 3 walks daily, beginning on Saturday the 29th March up until, and including the 4th May. These will involve a morning

Upcoming TB Eventswalk within the HAS sanctuary of Boy Scout Woods in High Island; a middle of the day survey of the best sites for shorebirds and waterbirds (which might be on the Bolivar Peninsula on the coast, or inland around Anahuac NWR, depending on where the best birding is to be had at the time); and a late afternoon walk around HAS Smith Oaks to search for the latest migrant drop-ins and check-in on the progress of the nesting birds at the famous rookery which hosts nesting egrets, herons, cormorants and Ro-seate Spoonbills each spring.

High Island, and the Upper Texas Coast in general, during springtime migration, are widely regarded as one of the best areas to watch migrants in North America. This ranges from the ever-seductive wood warblers, looking at their very best in this sea-son; to masses of shorebirds which stage along the coast, (some 10,000 American Avocets are often present during this time). Mixed in with all of this top quality migrant fare are col-orful grosbeaks, orioles, and tanagers; vireos, buntings, flycatchers, cuckoos, and nighthawks. All of this is timed at the height of the breeding season at the High Island rookery where neon pink Roseate Spoonbills compete for the attentions of birders and pho-tographers alike as they go about their daily nesting duties, clearly vis-ible from well-located viewing plat-forms. Our regular troop of guides will be there again this spring, many of which have been converted to “migrant junkies” from the first time they stepped foot on these hallowed migrant shores. Join Iain Campbell, Cameron Cox, Andres Vasquez, Scott Watson, and Sam Woods, who will all be down there in spring leading free guided walks through the Houston Audubon sanctuaries on High Island, and to surrounding shorebird hotspots.

A High Island regular (Sam Woods)

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What’s New at TB?

NEW PHOTO tour:

FALKLAND ISLANDS29 November - 13 December 2014

While the Galapagos Islands receive considerably more attention, the Falk-lands Islands often fall well under the radar when it comes to destinations for top-end nature photographers. Like the Galapagos Islands though, the Falkland Islands provide incred-ible, intimate encounters with wildlife, only possible in very few wildlife des-tinations. Our inaugural tour to these South American islands was led by Iain Campbell in late 2013 (see pages for photo galleries from the 2013 tour), and all the participants returned with their memory cards jam-packed with high quality photos of Macaroni, Magellanic, Rockhopper, Gentoo, and King Penguins, in addition to King Shags, Black-browed Alba-trosses, and Striated Caracaras. Memorable moments occur on these rugged islands like the local Blackish Cinclodes, which is so completely unafraid of humans, it is not uncom-mon for one to casually walk over the feet of gathered photographers! On top of the birds are other wildlife too, most notably the gargantuan South-ern Elephant Seal, which provides endless moments for extensive photo shoots in the field. We visit at a time of year when they days are long and the light is simply fantastic for nature photography.

Latest TB Developments

The Falkland Islands are a veritable shag-fest! (King Shag, Iain Campbell)

Magellanic Penguins looking for the next wave in the Falkland Islands (Iain Campbell)

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What’s New at TB?

These tours are all confirmed (with participants already signed up), al-though still have further spaces available:

BIRDING TOURS

GHANAPicathartes and Egyptian Plover9 – 22 March 2014Tour leader: Charley HesseTargets: Yellow-headed Picathartes, Egyp-tian Plover, and Rosy & Black Bee-eaters.

TAIWANFormosan Endemics14 – 27 April 2014Tour leader: Charley HesseTargets: Mikado & Swinhoe’s Pheasants, Taiwan Blue Magpie, Fairy Pitta.

TEXASHigh Island Migration (short tour)15 – 19 April 2014Tour leader: Cameron CoxTargets: Warblers! (Swainson’s, Worm-eating, Cerulean, Prairie), lots of shore-birds, Bachman’s Sparrrow & Red-cock-aded Woodpecker.

COLORADOChasing Chickens from Prairie to Mountaintop19 – 27 April 2014Tour leader: Jacob CooperTargets: Gunnison & Greater Sage-Grouse, Greater & Lesser Prairie-chickens, Sharp-tailed Grouse, White-tailed Ptarmigan.

KENYAThe Coolest Trip in Africa8 – 24 May 2014 (Ext: 24-30 May)Tour Leader: Adam Scott KennedyTargets: The Big Five, Narina Trogon, Heu-glin’s Courser, Blue-headed Bee-eater, many turaco species.

2014 Tour Updates: ALASKABirding the Last Frontier13 – 27 June 2014Tour leader: Andrew SpencerTargets: Gyrfalcon, Bristle-thighed Curlew, Spectacled & Steller’s Eiders, Rock & Willow Ptarmigans, Snowy Owl, and Blu-ethroat.

BRAZILThe Pantanal and Amazon5 – 19 July 2014Tour leader: Nick AthanasTargets: Agami Heron, Hyacinth Macaw, Red-fan Parrot, Frilled Coquette, Toco Tou-can & Curl-crested Aracari.

PHOTO TOURS

ALASKAPhoto Journey13 – 27 June 2014Tour leader: Cameron CoxTargets: Spectacled and Steller’s Eiders, Rock and Willow Ptarmigan, Snowy Owl, Pacific Loon and Tufted and Horned Puf-fins.

ECUADORPhoto Journey12- 21 July 2014Tour leader: Pablo Cervanteshttp://www.tropicalbirding.com/photo-tours/ecuador-photo-safari/ Targets: Hummingbirds, hummingbirds, hummingbirds! (Sword-billed Humming-bird, Booted Racket-tail and Velvet-purple Coronet); Flame-rumped and Flame-faced Tanagers, Yellow-breasted Antpitta, and Andean Cock-of-the-rock.

SOUTH AFRICAPhoto Journey31 Aug – 14 Sept. 201414 – 17 Sept. 2014 (Big Cat Ex-tension)Tour leader: Ken BehrensTargets: Leopard, Lion, Giraffe, African Penguin, Blue Crane, Cape Sugarbird, Cape Rockjumper, and Southern Ground-Hornbill.

Macaroni Penguin from an Antarctic Cruise (Iain Campbell)

Tropical Birding

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What’s New at TB?CRUISES

ANTARCTICAFalkland Islands, South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula30 Jan – 18 Feb 2015Tour leader: Nick AthanasTargets: King, Gentoo, Adelie, Rockhopper, Macaroni, and Chinstrap Penguins; Snow Petrel, Royal and Wandering Albatross-es, Southern Elephant Seal, and Snowy Sheathbill. This tour has the leader Nick Athanas confirmed for the tour.

New Field Guides by TB Guides:

In May Princeton published the

Wildlife of Australia authored by TB guides Iain Campbell and Sam Woods.

In September 2013, Peterson pub-lished the Peterson Reference Guide to Seawatching: Eastern Waterbirds in Flight authored by TB guides Ken Behrens and Cameron Cox.

Rufous-chested Dotterel is readily found on the Falkland Islands (Iain Campbell)

Intimate encounters with wildlife are the norm in Antarctica (Iain Campbell)