Somebody already knows where the birds are. Book that person.
Which Cape Town day actually stops at the Boulders boardwalk. Whether the Reykjavik puffin boat lands or only circles. What the guide hands you at the gate: a scope, a spare pair of binoculars, a checklist, or nothing at all. Reviews of every birdwatching tour you can book.
Half of these birds are somewhere else for half the year.
Puffins are on the Icelandic cliffs from mid-May to mid-August and gone by September. Phillip Island’s penguins land every night of the year, but the parade tracks sunset, which shifts by three hours between June and December. The Boulders penguins moult in late spring and stay ashore. Flamingos follow the water and leave a dry lagoon behind them. Book the season first, then the tour.
- 1Original Big Whale Safari & Puffins by Speedboatfrom $175
- 2Puffin Watching Boat Tourfrom $64
- 3Big Whales and Puffin Island Speedboat Tourfrom $198
Boulders Beach, Phillip Island, a Reykjavik puffin boat and a New Zealand gannet plateau.
The four bookings most birding trips get built around. What each costs, when the birds are actually there, and what the people who went say.
01The Cape Peninsula dayCape of Good Hope & Penguins Day Tour with PickupBoulders boardwalk first, Cape Point after lunch. Africa’s only penguin nests under the milkwood scrub a few metres from the rail.
02Dusk on Phillip IslandPenguin Parade, & Wildlife Encounters Eco Tour from MelbourneLittle penguins ride the surf in after sunset and cross the sand in rafts. The eco tour keeps the group small and puts a ranger beside you.
03Out of the old harbourPuffin Watching Boat TourA Reykjavik boat to the nesting islands in Faxaflói bay. Mid-May to mid-August; after that the birds are back out on open water.
04The gannet plateauGannet Safaris Overland tour to Cape Kidnappers Gannet ColonyOverland to Cape Kidnappers, where gannets nest at eye level on an open headland. No hide, no scope, no waiting.
Cape Town birding runs on one road: Boulders, Cape Point, then back along the peninsula.
The trips here cover the same stretch of coast in three different shapes, and the shape you book decides how long you get standing at the penguin boardwalk before the coach leaves.
Penguin colonies you can walk right up to, from Boulders to Summerland Beach.
Close to a third of the birding on this site ends at a penguin colony, and almost none of it needs a scope. Africa’s only penguin on a suburban beach, little penguins landing after dark in Victoria, Magellanics on a Patagonian island. These three are booked more than any others.
The seabirds are offshore, which makes the best birding day a boat day.
Puffin islands in Faxaflói bay, sea eagles down the Trollfjord on a rigid inflatable, gannets rounding Cape Kidnappers, the Ria Formosa lagoon in a solar boat at first light. Rafts of birds that never come within a mile of a footpath sit ten metres off a hull and ignore you.
Six countries that have already organised the birding for you.
A boardwalk through an African penguin colony, a floodlit beach in Victoria, puffin islands an hour off Reykjavik, Everglades airboats, a gannet plateau in Hawke’s Bay and flamingos on a Yucatán lagoon. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
Iceland’s puffin season is thirteen weeks long, and every boat in Reykjavik knows it.
Boats leave the old harbour and Húsavík for the nesting islands from mid-May, usually sold with whales because the same water holds both. By late August the burrows are empty and the tours stop. Further north the Lofoten inflatables run sea-eagle safaris into the Trollfjord in almost any weather.
- 1Original Big Whale Safari & Puffins by Speedboatfrom $175
- 2Puffin Watching Boat Tourfrom $64
- 3Big Whales and Puffin Island Speedboat Tourfrom $198
What a day’s birdwatching actually costs.
Every trip on the site, grouped by what it costs. A colony boardwalk, a bird-park gate or an estuary boat comes in well under the price of dinner.
Colony boardwalks, bird-park entry, estuary boats and the short guided walks with binoculars thrown in.
Full-day peninsula runs, the Reykjavik puffin cruises and the Phillip Island coaches out of Melbourne.
A guide and a scope to yourself, overland colony access, and the multi-day trips into real habitat.
Three colonies where the birds come to you.
Most wildlife watching is a long wait behind glass. At these three the birds nest a few metres from a public boardwalk and carry on as if nobody were there.
Boulders Beach
Africa has exactly one penguin, and a couple of thousand of them nest under the milkwood scrub on a suburban beach forty minutes from central Cape Town. A raised boardwalk runs through the middle of the colony, so there is no hide and no scope involved. They moult through November and December, when they stand about on the sand looking thoroughly fed up and cannot go to sea at all.
- 1Cape of Good Hope & Penguins Day Tour with Pickup★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 3,362 reviews
- 2Cape Point and Boulder’s Penguins Full Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,118 reviews
- 3Cape of Good Hope & Boulder Penguins Full-Day Tour from Cape Town★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,347 reviews
The Penguin Parade
Little penguins are the smallest species there is, about a kilogram each, and they spend the day out at sea. After dark they gather in rafts beyond the break and cross the sand together, which is safer than crossing alone. Tiered stands face the beach and the rangers count them in. Cameras are banned outright, which is a large part of why it still works.
- 1Penguin Parade, & Wildlife Encounters Eco Tour from Melbourne★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,774 reviews
- 2Penguin Parade, Koalas & Kangaroos★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,932 reviews
- 3Phillip Island Penguin Parade & Koalas Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,408 reviews
Cape Kidnappers
The largest mainland gannet colony anywhere sits on an open plateau at the end of a New Zealand headland, reached along the beach by tractor-trailer at low tide or overland across a sheep station. The birds nest a pace apart at eye level, take off into the updraught off the cliff and land again a metre from your boots.
- 1Gannet Safaris Overland tour to Cape Kidnappers Gannet Colony★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 942 reviews
- 2Royal Albatross – Sunset Sail Cruise with 5-Course Seated Dinner★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 467 reviews
- 3Pelican Point Kayaking Half-Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 349 reviews
Australian birding is an evening booking: Phillip Island first, sanctuaries to fill the daylight.
The little penguins land on Summerland Beach after sunset, and that pins the whole day to a coach leaving Melbourne mid-afternoon. Spend the light on Healesville, the Maleny aviary or a Dandenongs walk full of lorikeets and cockatoos, then keep the last hour for the beach.
Every Australian birding day →
Four birding bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of this can be arranged the night before over dinner. These four run on nesting seasons, tide tables and a ticket cap set by a ranger, none of which care when your flight lands.
- 01Penguin Parade, & Wildlife Encounters Eco Tour from MelbourneViewing is ticketed and the stands hold a fixed number. Summer weekends and Australian school holidays go weeks out.
- 02Original Big Whale Safari & Puffins by SpeedboatPuffins are only on the Icelandic cliffs from roughly mid-May to mid-August. Outside that window there is no tour to book at all.
- 03Gannet Safaris Overland tour to Cape Kidnappers Gannet ColonyCape Kidnappers shuts for the nesting season, and the beach route runs on the tide rather than on a timetable.
- 04Walk with Penguins on Magdalena & Marta IslandLandings on the Magellanic colony are capped by permit and the season is the short Chilean summer.
The birdwatching trips travellers book more than any others.
Every birding tour we have reviewed →Eight trips that fill up first, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Penguin Parade, & Wildlife Encounters Eco Tour from Melbourne
Join Go West Tours for a full-day trip from Melbourne to Phillip Island. You’ll see Brighton’s bathing boxes, feed kangaroos at Moonlit Sanctuary, visit the Nobbies, and watch little penguins come ashore after sunset. Guides such as Cloe, Jools, Aleks, and Graeme add plenty of local color.
From · $118
Read our review →
2
Cape of Good Hope & Penguins Day Tour with Pickup
from $52
3
Cape Point and Boulder’s Penguins Full Day Tour
from $34
4
Cape of Good Hope & Boulder Penguins Full-Day Tour from Cape Town
from $48
5
Penguin Parade, Koalas & Kangaroos
from $112
6
Table Mountain, Penguins & Cape Point Small Group Tour Cape Town
from $62
7
Cape Town Tour: Table Mountain, Penguins & Cape Point+Pickup
from $65
8
High Red Dunes with Camel Ride, Sandboarding, Falcon Show and VIP BBQ Dinner
from $80
By country and city
By bird, and by the kind of trip it takes to see one
A birdwatching year, month by month, hemisphere by hemisphere.
Norway
PatagoniaThe newest birdwatching tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Full-Day Private Tour with Cape Point & Penguins
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Cape Point Cape of Good Hope, Penguins Private Half day Tour
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Cape Point & Penguins: Private Cape Peninsula Tour.
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Cape Peninsula & Penguins Beach Half Day Tour from Cape Town
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Private Tour:Cape Peninsula &Penguin Beach, Cape Point &more
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Cape of Good Hope and Penguins Private Tour with Entry Fees
Read our review →Cape of Good Hope & Penguins Small Group Tour from Cape Town
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Cape of Good Hope: Sightseeing and African Penguins Tour
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