Iran Bird Watching Tour - Southern Part

Arrival Tehran - Bandar Abbas - Minab

Your tour in Iran will start by your arrival to the IKA. We will pick you up and transfer you to the Mehrabad Airport from which you will have a flight to Bandar Abbas. The city of Bandar Abbas is actually the major port on the shores of the Strait of Hormuz, we will drive to the small town of Minab for a three nights stay. At Minab we will enjoy our trip by going through a stark desert landscape, patches of irrigated agriculture, and date gardens. (O/N Minab)

Minab - Merkan - Minab

Minab will be our base standing to overnight for a few days and we will have some excursion around the city. Today we are going to explore southwards along the Mekran (or Makran) coast of Persian Baluchistan.

We are now in an area where the Palearctic Region and the Oriental Region meet. Primarily Oriental species that extend into the Palearctic in this area include White-eyed Buzzard, Grey Francolin, Red-wattle Lapwing, Spotted Owlet, Indian Roller, White-throated Kingfisher, Sand Lark, White-eared Bulbul, Pied Bush chat, Bay-backed Shrike, House Crow, Common Myna, Purple Sunbird, Chestnut-shouldered (or Yellow-throated) Sparrow and Indian Silverbill.

Additional species we are likely to encounter include Black-winged (or Black-shouldered) Kite, Black Kite, Shikra, Black Francolin, Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, Eurasian Collared Dove, Laughing Dove, Pallid Swift, Green Bee-eater, Greater Hoopoe Lark, Crested Lark, Rock Martin, Barn Swallow, Graceful Prinia, Sykes’s Warbler (split from Booted), Southern Grey and Rufous-tailed Shrikes, and Brown-necked Raven.

We will also explore the adjacent coast, where the long sandy beaches, tidal inlets and patches of mangrove support such interesting breeding species as Striated (or Green-backed) Heron, Indian Pond Heron, Western Reef Egret, the strange Crab-plover (the sole member of a monotypic bird family), Great Thick-knee, Sooty Gull, White-cheeked Tern and Clamorous Reed Warbler.

Other species we may well find in the coastal habitats of the area include Eurasian Spoonbill, Greater Flamingo, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Common Ringed, Little Ringed, Kentish, Lesser Sand and Grey (or Black-bellied) Plovers, Sanderling, Bar-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel, Eurasian Curlew, Common Redshank, Terek and Common Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstone, Parasitic Jaeger (or Arctic Tern), Black-headed, Slender-billed, Caspian and Heuglin’s (or Siberian) Gulls, and Caspian, Gull-billed, Greater Crested, and Lesser Crested. (O/N Minab)

Minab - Merkan - Minab

Today, we continue the tour the same as yesterday to the Merkan area to see as much as birds in the area.

Minab - Genu Mountain - Bandar Abbas

In the morning we will leave Minab to Genu Mountain which is an isolated mountain rising to 2370 meters, only 25km north of Bandar Abbas. At the place, we will be looking for the birds such as See-see Partridge, Desert Lark, Long-billed Pipit, the restricted-range Hume’s Wheatear, Streaked Scrub (or Scrub) Warbler, Upcher’s Warbler, Eastern Rock Nuthatch and Striolated Bunting. If we will be lucky we should also come across Red-rumped Swallow and Blue Rock Thrush.

Bandar Abbas - Nayband - Asaluyeh

The morning will start by driving to Nayband Marine-Coastal National Park with several huge marine estuaries that embrace the Hara (mangrove) trees. Here, you will see birds such as Dalmatian Pelican, Gray Heron, Gray Partridge, Bonelle`s Eagle, Various Buzzards, Kestrel, Hoopoe, Falcon, Owls, Vultures, and Gray harrier. In the evening we will continue to Asaluyeh.

Asaluyeh - Ahvaz

From Asaluyeh, we continue by driving to Ahvaz. On the way, we will visit Mond Protected Area, where you can see numbers of birds such as Slender-billed Curlew, Dalmatian Pelican, Saker, Houbra Bustard, Peregrine Falcon, Chukar Partridge, and See-See Pardrige. Later, we follow the road to Heleh Wild Refuge in Bushehr Province and see Black Partridge, Dalmatian Pelican, Stork, Flamingo, Marbled Teal, Bridled Tern, and Osprey. In the evening we will be at Ahvaz.

Ahvaz

The city of Ahvaz lies on the vast alluvial plain of the Karkheh, Dez and Karun rivers. There are protected woodlands as the last remaining natural habitat of the critically endangered Mesopotamian Fallow Deer. We will spend some time exploring these woodlands, and while we will have very little chance of seeing the deer, we should have no difficulty in finding Grey Hypocolius. Other notable breeding birds of the area include Egyptian Nightjar, Ménétries’s Warbler and the distinctive Mesopotamian Crow.

More widespread breeding species include Eurasian Stone-curlew, Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, Common Wood Pigeon, European Nightjar, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Common Nightingale, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler, Great Tit, and Spanish Sparrow.

Ahvaz - Border of Iraq and Iran - Ahvaz

Early morning, we will head to Iraq Border, where we shall concentrate on finding another great specialty of this region, the little-known Iraq Babbler. This very local and now globally threatened species is largely confined to the Mesopotamian marshes in neighboring Iraq but extends over the border into southwestern Iran.

On our way, we will have a stop at the Ziggurat of Choqazanbil, a stepped pyramid of great antiquity that dates back to the 13th century BC and the Elamite dynasty.

Our prime target, however, will be the Basra Reed Warbler. Although first described as a distinct species by Ticehurst in 1920, it has recently seen in the vast reed-beds in the Iranian portion of the marshlands.

Other species we may well find include Dalmatian Pelican, Pygmy Cormorant, Purple Heron, Grey-headed Swamphen, and Zitting Cisticola.

Ahvaz - Tehran - IKA

Today the tour ends, you will have a flight back to Tehran from Ahvaz. When you arrive in Tehran, you will be transferred to the IKA.