Madagascar's Extensive Birding Tours

Madagascar's Extensive Birding Tour is the most thorough coverage of the island's avifauna available in a single itinerary — a 24-day deep dive into all four major biomes, visiting sites that no shorter tour can reach. This is the tour for the serious birder who wants a genuinely comprehensive Madagascar bird list.

The itinerary is structured to take full advantage of seasonal and geographical diversity. It begins in the deep south with the alkaline lake systems and spiny desert of Tsimanapetsotsa and Ifaty — habitats of global significance for flamingos, shorebirds, and the otherworldly Long-tailed Ground Roller. From there we move north through the transitional forests of Zombitse and Isalo before ascending into the high-altitude Ranomafana rainforest, where Yellow-bellied Sunbird-Asity and Rufous-headed Ground Roller await.

The central rainforest corridor at Andasibe and Mantadia provides some of the most productive birding days of the entire trip, before a flight northwest brings us into the dry deciduous forests of Ankarafantsika and the wetland paradise of the Betsiboka Delta — one of the few reliable sites in the world for Bernier's Teal and Crab-Plover. The tour concludes on the remote Masoala Peninsula, reached by boat through one of the world's most spectacular bays.

What makes the Extensive tour truly special is its flexibility. With 24 days, there is time to absorb each habitat fully — to sit quietly at a forest clearing, to revisit productive trails at different hours, and to pursue the most elusive species without the pressure of a tight schedule. Your expert Malagasy guide will maximise every dawn and dusk.