EGYPT - THE NILE VALLEY
In Search of Western Palearctic Megas!

For the avid Western Palearctic lister, Egypt is a must-visit destination as it can provide nearly 20 species that are impossible anywhere else in the region, and on this tour we have possibilities of seeing around 16 of them! Add to this some fantastic migrants, plenty of other great birds and even a drop of culture and you've got a heady mix towards a classic birding destination. Starting in Cairo we will visit some excellent sites around the city in search of Greater Painted Snipe, Kittlitz's Plover, Senegal Coucal, Nile Valley Sunbird & Red Avadavat. Along the Nile will pick up African Green Bee-eater along with African Swamphen (recently lumped in Purple Gallinule), Senegal Thick-knee, Pied & White-throated Kingfishers amongst others. At Aswan we will make a boat trip out onto Lake Nasser and explore the surrounding area for the mega Three-banded Plover & Streaked Weaver, as well as having our first chance of Yellow-billed Stork & African Pied Wagtail.

In the far south of the country and a stone's throw from the border with Sudan we will spend 3 night's at Abu Simbel - THE hotspot for rare African species wandering across the border of the Western Palearctic boundary and here we will look for Reed Cormorant, Yellow-billed Stork, Kittlitz's Plover, Plain Martin & Village Weaver, as well as African Pied Wagtail again.

There's a fine supporting cast of potential species that includes various herons & egrets, Little Bittern, Black-winged Kite, Yellow-billed Kite, Cream-coloured Courser, Pharaoh Eagle Owl, Egyptian Nightjar, Greater Hoopoe-Lark, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Streaked Scrub Warbler, Clamorous Reed Warbler, Pallid Swift, Hooded, Mourning, White-crowned Wheatears, Trumpeter Finch and others. Migration can also add some surprises and possibilities include White-tailed Lapwing, Eurasian Wryneck, Masked Shrike, Semicollared Flycatcher, Marsh & Eastern Bonelli's Warblers, Ortolan & Cretzschmar's Buntings & so much more! And of course there will be some culture with visits to the Great Pyramid and Sphinx at Giza and The Great Temple at Abu Simbel.