Template Tours
These itineraries are designed to help you make the most of your birding trip to India. Typically spanning one to two weeks, each tour focuses on a particular region and combines its key birding sites into a well-rounded trip.
All our trips are also highly customizable, based on your preferred locations, routes, and bird targets.
Western Assam & Arunachal Pradesh
The Western Assam & Arunachal Pradesh tour takes you through some of the region’s most varied terrain, starting in the plains at Kaziranga National Park, where unbroken floodplain grasslands meet dense riverine forest. From there, the route moves through Nameri National Park in the foothills before climbing into Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary, higher up in Arunachal Pradesh. Several full days are spent working different elevations and habitats within the sanctuary. The tour then continues north to Dirang, Mandala, and Sela Pass, all known for high-elevation specialties, before concluding with birding around Tawang & a drive down to Guwahati airport.
Eastern Assam & the Mishmi Hills
The Eastern Assam & Mishmi Hills tour opens in the Brahmaputra floodplains at Maguri Beel and Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, home to a distinct set of grassland specialists and regional endemics tied to the river’s wetlands. From there, the route moves into the dense lowland rainforest of Dehing-Patkai National Park, one of the last strongholds for evergreen-forest specialists found only in this part of the country. The tour then heads to Roing, at the foot of the Mishmi Hills in Arunachal Pradesh, for further birding across the surrounding plains before climbing into the cloud forests of Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary higher up.
Assam & Namdapha National Park
The Assam & Namdapha National Park tour begins with a drive from Dibrugarh airport to Tinsukia, gateway to Eastern Assam’s floodplain grasslands along the Brahmaputra. The focus here is Maguri Beel and Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, wetland and grassland habitats supporting species tied to the river’s shifting floodplains. After some time around Tinsukia, the tour heads east to Namdapha National Park in Arunachal Pradesh’s easternmost reaches, home to Indomalayan species found nowhere else in the country. Much of this leg is spent around Deban, a small settlement on the park’s edge, and along the Miao-Vijaynagar road cutting through Namdapha’s interior.
Rajasthan - The Thar
The Thar Desert offers a birding experience unlike anywhere else in India — a landscape of shifting dunes, rocky outcrops, and open grassland that supports a highly specialized set of species adapted to its arid extremes. The tour begins in Jaisalmer, whose old sandstone architecture sits right at the edge of the desert proper, before moving to Desert National Park at Sam, one of the last strongholds of the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard. From there, the route covers Ramgarh, Netsi, and a handful of other pockets scattered through the desert, each holding its own mix of desert-adapted birds and mammals – from larks and coursers built for open, sun-baked ground to raptors that patrol the thermals above the dunes.
Gujarat - Rann of Kutch & Nalsarovar
The Gujarat Grasslands & Wetlands tour opens with a drive from Jamnagar airport to Bhuj, gateway to the Greater Rann of Kutch, where a vast salt desert gives way to open grassland on its margins. After some time spent around Bhuj and the Banni grasslands, the route heads south to the Little Rann of Kutch – a saline wetland ecosystem and last refuge of the wild Indian Wild Ass, its shallow seasonal wetlands drawing flamingos, cranes, and pelicans in large numbers. From there, the tour moves to Nal Sarovar, one of western India’s largest wetland bird sanctuaries, before concluding in Ahmedabad.
The Western Ghats
The Western Ghats rank among India’s most sought-after birding destinations, holding a concentration of endemics found nowhere else on earth. The tour begins in the lowland rainforest around Kochi, then climbs into the high-altitude shola grasslands of Ooty and Munnar — a sharp shift in habitat that brings a different set of species into range. From there, the route drops into the scrub forest plains of Masinagudi, before moving through several more hill ranges of the Ghats in search of the region’s remaining endemics. The tour concludes in Bangalore, with optional exploration around the Deccan for additional specialties.
The Andaman Islands
The Andaman Islands are home to a remarkable range of island endemic birds found nowhere else in the world, along with some of India’s most rewarding tropical birding. This tour explores key habitats across South Andaman, from the wetlands of Sippighat and Ograbraj to the lowland forests of Mount Harriet National Park and Chidiyatapu. These varied locations provide opportunities to target the region’s endemic and restricted-range species while also exploring the islands’ broader bird diversity. The itinerary is centred around Port Blair, with excursions to some of South Andaman’s most productive birding sites.
Ladakh!
The Transhimalaya is India’s last true birding frontier – a high-altitude expanse of rugged, wind-scoured terrain that shelters species found almost nowhere else in the country. The tour opens in Leh, where a couple of days are built in for rest and acclimatization before the altitude climbs further. From there, the route heads to Hanle’s sprawling marshes, then on to the wetlands and rolling plains around Tsokar, both strongholds for the region’s high-altitude specialists. Several mountain passes and remote lakes follow, each opening onto landscapes thick with birds and mammals adapted to this unforgiving environment. The final stretch drops into the Kargil region, where the agricultural terraces of high-altitude villages hold one of the tour’s key targets: the Long-billed Bush Warbler.
Kashmir & Srinagar
Kashmir’s birding draws on an unusual mix of terrain packed into a small radius: alpine meadows, conifer forest, wetlands, and valley floor all within a few hours’ drive of each other. Based out of Srinagar, the tour opens at the Botanical Gardens and nearby valley habitat before heading into Gulmarg, home to some of the region’s higher-elevation specialties. From there, the route covers Wular Lake and a handful of other wetlands that hold significant numbers of wintering and resident waterbirds, before climbing toward Daksum and Sinthan Top, where the forest gives way to open meadows and a different set of montane species comes into range.
Looking for something other than the tours featured in our catalogue? Get in touch with us directly, and we can help plan a customized birding tour around the region you’re looking for.