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What countries or regions are good for solo birding? (1 Viewer)

China is mostly how difficult it is to access most of the good birding spots without a good understanding of Mandarin (only speak English and Spanish here), plus many parts of the country are limited on what tourists can and can't visit unless they are with a guide from China (kind of what happens for Cuba if you want to visit any of the protected areas). Plus not to mention how bad the driving would be.

As for Gabon and Guyana, it's a combination of difficult to coordinate on your own, country has limited connection, so it's best (and likely safer) to ask a local guide to create and itinerary for you and have them join you since the regions are mostly composed of lowland rainforest habitat with high levels of endemism/little known species. So it just seems like a better option overall, but then again, I'm sure there's a few birders out there that would still try it on their own like the "Budget Birders" couple, but definitely not countries I'd feel comfortable doing on my own (Papua New Guinea is also in that list but that one is usually seen as a tours=safe option).

In China there is no "driving would be bad" - you simply can't drive in China without a Chinese license. So that spares you this problem :) However we have an entire active topic on the forum about where some people argue from experience that independent birding is indeed possible.

I actually looked into Gabon and the problem seemed that there isn't unguided access to many places allowed. But in Guyana (and the two other countries to the east of it), free movement should be easily possible, it has been actually suggested to me that this is one of the best areas for independent rainforest exploration in the world.
 
In China there is no "driving would be bad" - you simply can't drive in China without a Chinese license. So that spares you this problem :) However we have an entire active topic on the forum about where some people argue from experience that independent birding is indeed possible.

I actually looked into Gabon and the problem seemed that there isn't unguided access to many places allowed. But in Guyana (and the two other countries to the east of it), free movement should be easily possible, it has been actually suggested to me that this is one of the best areas for independent rainforest exploration in the world.
Looks like I was right for China and Gabon at least, Guyana is definitely easier to do on your own, just take care in the capital (robbery crime is common) and go in the dry season unless you want to book a plane between each hotspot/lodge (that's the other thing, options are limited so the prices can be a bit high since there's no alternative like say Costa Rica, Panama or Ecuador).

Suriname and French Guiana definitely seem easier in this regard, but in exchange, the quality of prime lowland habitat is lower, so easier access but lower chances to see mega species/families like Harpy Eagle, Gray-winged Trumpeter and Ground-cuckoo, plus there's no canopy tower/walkway like there's one in Guyana. But I've heard from a birder that went to Suriname that it's a really safe and easy to bird nation, even without leaving the capital you can get some Guianan Shield endemics like Blood-colored Woodpecker.
 
China is mostly how difficult it is to access most of the good birding spots without a good understanding of Mandarin (only speak English and Spanish here), plus many parts of the country are limited on what tourists can and can't visit unless they are with a guide from China (kind of what happens for Cuba if you want to visit any of the protected areas). Plus not to mention how bad the driving would be.

As for Gabon and Guyana, it's a combination of difficult to coordinate on your own, country has limited connection, so it's best (and likely safer) to ask a local guide to create and itinerary for you and have them join you since the regions are mostly composed of lowland rainforest habitat with high levels of endemism/little known species. So it just seems like a better option overall, but then again, I'm sure there's a few birders out there that would still try it on their own like the "Budget Birders" couple, but definitely not countries I'd feel comfortable doing on my own (Papua New Guinea is also in that list but that one is usually seen as a tours=safe option).

I would have no qualms going to Guyana on my own, and would argue that the species are not little known. Gabon I can't say how easy/hard it would be but would imagine that local guides will be necessary in some spots - but whether these are actual birding guides? In many cases (ie Cuba as you mentioned) a guide is mandatory for a park / area / etc, but in many parts of the world that's not always a birding guide, sometimes just a trail guide.

China I think it's mostly that people are intimidated. A quickly modernizing country with good transport seems very doable, if intimidating for people who don't speak the language. I'd give it a whirl?

Not a lot of countries out there (perhaps none?) where a guide is necessary at a national level. Local guides might be needed at many sites in some countries but beyond that going on a tour vs going independently is just a question of how much you enjoy the logistical challenge vs how much you like to / can afford to have that solved for you.
 
If you want to do China efficiently, sure there aremany sites that must be difficult/impossible without hiring a driver. But some really good sites are easy to get to and bird on public transport, eg Emei Shan and Kunming.
 
By setting standard low enough, every country can be birded somehow.

However most people would think that good for independent birding means realistic chance of seeing all or most endemics, and moving around with little time wasted on transport and searching sites - something which China or Gabon are absolutely not.
 
By setting standard low enough, every country can be birded somehow.

However most people would think that good for independent birding means realistic chance of seeing all or most endemics, and moving around with little time wasted on transport and searching sites - something which China or Gabon are absolutely not.
Mostly my thought process, limited time and resources means that if I make the trip, chances are I won't have a second opportunity to go there, so might as well sweep up. If I can do it on my own for the most part like in New Zealand or the US, great, but I'll still pick a guide for those places that 2 weeks just isn't enough time to truly explore on your own or the government doesn't allow you to explore on your own.
 
I would have no qualms going to Guyana on my own, and would argue that the species are not little known. Gabon I can't say how easy/hard it would be but would imagine that local guides will be necessary in some spots - but whether these are actual birding guides? In many cases (ie Cuba as you mentioned) a guide is mandatory for a park / area / etc, but in many parts of the world that's not always a birding guide, sometimes just a trail guide.

China I think it's mostly that people are intimidated. A quickly modernizing country with good transport seems very doable, if intimidating for people who don't speak the language. I'd give it a whirl?

Not a lot of countries out there (perhaps none?) where a guide is necessary at a national level. Local guides might be needed at many sites in some countries but beyond that going on a tour vs going independently is just a question of how much you enjoy the logistical challenge vs how much you like to / can afford to have that solved for you.

If you want to do China efficiently, sure there aremany sites that must be difficult/impossible without hiring a driver. But some really good sites are easy to get to and bird on public transport, eg Emei Shan and Kunming.
I think the limitation is as you say what species do you want to see in the readily accessible areas. For me, China might be good for little day/weekend trips to Emei Shan or Kunming, but if I want to see Pinktail, Pheasants and Rosefinches, a guide is a must.

A logistical challenge is great in my eyes, I spend months just planning the perfect itinerary for me and my family to have a great trip, but the caveat is that I'm going to a place with lots of information and easy to move around (no matter how safe certain countries can be, if you are overwhelmed by the driving between point A to point B, you lose, which is probably why I'll likely never do solo in India despite it being a pretty open country with lots of birds and security).
 
Understand all your points jurek and lgonz - and sure, I imagine local guides at some / many sites in Gabon would be pretty necessary but I probably still wouldn't go with a tour, I'd sort it myself, but that's just me.

And China is so large, hard to suggest that one guided trip there will clean up. Lots can certainly be done solo, other parts will require a driver.

For an upcoming Brazil trip we will probably use the one local guide who is very knowledgeable and has the logistics sorted for two of the most remote sites in Acre (Serra do Divisor and Chandless PP) due to the difficulty arranging a visit to Chandless by ourselves, and due to the guide's knowledge of a couple of very hard birds in Divisor, in order to make the effort of getting there more worthwhile and to maximize our chances of 2-3 extremely hard birds given that we'll almost certainly never return to either site. The rest of our almost 2 months will be car rental and doing it all ourselves...
 
Understand all your points jurek and lgonz - and sure, I imagine local guides at some / many sites in Gabon would be pretty necessary but I probably still wouldn't go with a tour, I'd sort it myself, but that's just me.

And China is so large, hard to suggest that one guided trip there will clean up. Lots can certainly be done solo, other parts will require a driver.

For an upcoming Brazil trip we will probably use the one local guide who is very knowledgeable and has the logistics sorted for two of the most remote sites in Acre (Serra do Divisor and Chandless PP) due to the difficulty arranging a visit to Chandless by ourselves, and due to the guide's knowledge of a couple of very hard birds in Divisor, in order to make the effort of getting there more worthwhile and to maximize our chances of 2-3 extremely hard birds given that we'll almost certainly never return to either site. The rest of our almost 2 months will be car rental and doing it all ourselves...
Oh no way in hell that China will be done in one trip, it's kind of like Brazil, India, Australia, US and Mexico in that aspect, big countries with lots of space between hotspot sites and variety of wildlife based on where you go. I imagine China would need 3 or 4 trips to get a proper grasp of what it has to offer (with family chasers like me being forced to do the Tibetan Plateau no matter what).

Personally, I don't like doing tours either unless I'm with my local birding club since I know most of the participants and it's more budget friendly than a real tour. I mostly created this post to see where I could go with confidence on my own and those places I'm iffy about or just won't do alone to be left down the line when I might have more income and time to explore them with a guide.

Also, what species are you looking for in that region of Brazil? Those places are usually outside of the birding loop except for mega-list birders so I don't much about them
 
Also, what species are you looking for in that region of Brazil? Those places are usually outside of the birding loop except for mega-list birders so I don't much about them

The major draws in Chandless PP and in Serra do Divisor are the tantalizing possibility of Elusive Antpitta and Red-billed Ground-Cuckoo. Though actually neither is endemic to that region, it is perhaps the best area for either and they are certainly two of the most mythical and least seen birds in South America. Acre Antshrike is endemic to the Divisor of course as well, though it is easy once you get there, which is a bit of doing (starting from Rio Branco, Acre, it requires a prop plane flight then a full day of river transit, reversed on the way out, so about 3 days of travel in total from Rio Branco). And we may well see neither the Antpitta nor the Ground-Cuckoo, but it will not be for lack of effort.

The other bird that is a huge highlight in that part of Brazil is in Rondonia - the Rondonia Bushbird. Pale-faced Bare-eye is right up there with it, an absolute stunner. And then you have the whole slate of Tapajos-Madeira interfluve birds that are accessible from Porto Velho. A really really cool area, but it doesn't receive a lot of birders.
 
The major draws in Chandless PP and in Serra do Divisor are the tantalizing possibility of Elusive Antpitta and Red-billed Ground-Cuckoo. Though actually neither is endemic to that region, it is perhaps the best area for either and they are certainly two of the most mythical and least seen birds in South America. Acre Antshrike is endemic to the Divisor of course as well, though it is easy once you get there, which is a bit of doing (starting from Rio Branco, Acre, it requires a prop plane flight then a full day of river transit, reversed on the way out, so about 3 days of travel in total from Rio Branco). And we may well see neither the Antpitta nor the Ground-Cuckoo, but it will not be for lack of effort.

The other bird that is a huge highlight in that part of Brazil is in Rondonia - the Rondonia Bushbird. Pale-faced Bare-eye is right up there with it, an absolute stunner. And then you have the whole slate of Tapajos-Madeira interfluve birds that are accessible from Porto Velho. A really really cool area, but it doesn't receive a lot of birders.
Sounds like those are some mega targets, maybe you won't see either the Antpitta or the Ground-Cuckoo, but think positive and say you do get one of the two. You'll be among the few people in the world who have! The Bushbird also sounds like a really cool bird to see.

Just a reminder how much there is in Brazil that sadly doesn't get enough attention since the Central and Eastern part of the country has so many endemics/megas of its own that are easier to access.
 
Not sure how easy this question is, but I wanted to know from the experience of birders here, what countries are good for an international birder to just travel on their own, little to no local guide services. This includes ease of driving, ease of identifying the birds (I doubt a trip to a rainforest region would be easy birding without a guide), how safe it is overall and how easy would it be to communicate if you only know English and Spanish.

I have some countries that kind of fit this criteria, but I want input from others to confirm if these places are good for solo birding and if you have other suggestions. Here are the countries I think work fine even if done alone:
  • Argentina
  • Australia
  • New Zealand
  • Spain
  • South Africa?
  • United States

Looking forward to hearing everyone's input since I know a few great birders here do their trips on their own or just with their significant other without employing a tour company or guide.
Thailand especially north is very good and safe.
Seychelles is quite safe.
Argentina is quite safe outside big towns, but I do not know how is situation now. I was there 6 years ago.
same Chile
Cyprus and of March is interesting and quite safe
 
Thailand especially north is very good and safe.
Seychelles is quite safe.
Argentina is quite safe outside big towns, but I do not know how is situation now. I was there 6 years ago.
same Chile
Cyprus and of March is interesting and quite safe
How expensive was Chile as a budget/solo birder? Trips there are overly expensive in my opinion.

Isn't Cyprus in huge problems with the illegal songbird trapping? Is it good because it's a migrant trap?
 
How expensive was Chile as a budget/solo birder? Trips there are overly expensive in my opinion.
It is a long time since I was in Chile but I do not remember it as being especially expensive compared to e.g. Costa Rica or Panama. You do need a vehicle to get to good sites and some areas it might be a good idea to have 4wd or at least high clearance.
Niels
 
My experience with birding in Australia is that the escape distance (alert distance, flight initiation distance) is far lower
(closer?) with birds in Australia than in Germany (Europe?).
When I spoke to a birder here in Germany who was in Florida digiscoping with Tara Tanaka, I think, he told me that also the escape distance of birds in that region is also quite low (close?). He was even joking about how close you can get to birds. This matched with my experience of birds in Australia.

My concern of being on a trip on my own in Australia would be the dangers that could happen there, where I think you need to be in tandem with someone else where each other could help, even though chances are quite low:
Although I was not bitten by either a red back spider, a funnel-web spider, a snake, a salti, stung by a bluebottle, box jellyfish or cone shell, or kicked by a cassowary, etc., there are things you need to know about Australian wildlife and what not to do. Stinging trees or Bunya Pine nuts could hurt heavily or be deadly. 😉

Btw, are you familiar with left-hand traffic?
 
It is a long time since I was in Chile but I do not remember it as being especially expensive compared to e.g. Costa Rica or Panama. You do need a vehicle to get to good sites and some areas it might be a good idea to have 4wd or at least high clearance.
Niels
Surprised it's seen that way, but then again, a car makes or breaks a lot of solo birders when traveling worldwide.
 
My experience with birding in Australia is that the escape distance (alert distance, flight initiation distance) is far lower
(closer?) with birds in Australia than in Germany (Europe?).
When I spoke to a birder here in Germany who was in Florida digiscoping with Tara Tanaka, I think, he told me that also the escape distance of birds in that region is also quite low (close?). He was even joking about how close you can get to birds. This matched with my experience of birds in Australia.

My concern of being on a trip on my own in Australia would be the dangers that could happen there, where I think you need to be in tandem with someone else where each other could help, even though chances are quite low:
Although I was not bitten by either a red back spider, a funnel-web spider, a snake, a salti, stung by a bluebottle, box jellyfish or cone shell, or kicked by a cassowary, etc., there are things you need to know about Australian wildlife and what not to do. Stinging trees or Bunya Pine nuts could hurt heavily or be deadly. 😉

Btw, are you familiar with left-hand traffic?
Can't help much on the Australian side since I've never been in the region. But I can confirm that birding in Florida usually means that most birds are pretty tame, with some sites in South Florida having to deal with the birds needing to be pushed off the trail because they are either foraging or sunbathing along your feet.

Unless you have an extreme skulker or the birds are doing a rapid flyby, chances are that most birds will be within 100 meters of you and many will not mind even if you are within 10 or even 5 meters of them (mostly wading birds and songbirds)
 
Surprised it's seen that way, but then again, a car makes or breaks a lot of solo birders when traveling worldwide.
It may be possible to get to those places using public transportation if you have a lot of time. I did not try :)
I also did not try getting around without a vehicle in CR or Panama.

One problem with Chile is that it is extremely long. If you have limited time and want to cover both north, south and central then internal flights are added to the cost. As such, my statement of similar cost is most true for the central region where you do not need to add internal flights.
Niels
 
My experience with birding in Australia is that the escape distance (alert distance, flight initiation distance) is far lower
(closer?) with birds in Australia than in Germany (Europe?).
When I spoke to a birder here in Germany who was in Florida digiscoping with Tara Tanaka, I think, he told me that also the escape distance of birds in that region is also quite low (close?). He was even joking about how close you can get to birds. This matched with my experience of birds in Australia.

My concern of being on a trip on my own in Australia would be the dangers that could happen there, where I think you need to be in tandem with someone else where each other could help, even though chances are quite low:
Although I was not bitten by either a red back spider, a funnel-web spider, a snake, a salti, stung by a bluebottle, box jellyfish or cone shell, or kicked by a cassowary, etc., there are things you need to know about Australian wildlife and what not to do. Stinging trees or Bunya Pine nuts could hurt heavily or be deadly. 😉

Btw, are you familiar with left-hand traffic?
I tend to think that the dangers of Australian wildlife are far over-rated in pop culture. I think I recall hearing recently that more people die from livestock related injuries than from wildlife encounters in Australia. As long as you use common sense you are fine, and most birders are going to be doing activities that sort of avoid the worst of the potential critter encounters.
 
I tend to think that the dangers of Australian wildlife are far over-rated in pop culture. I think I recall hearing recently that more people die from livestock related injuries than from wildlife encounters in Australia. As long as you use common sense you are fine, and most birders are going to be doing activities that sort of avoid the worst of the potential critter encounters.
Walking in just about any city in the world will be more dangerous than just about any wildlife activity you can think of :cool:
Niels

Well, maybe not than swimming in a river you know is infested with Salties ... but still
 
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