8 Days Atlas Mountains & Guelmim Birding Tour

We can pick you up from the local Marrakech airport the day before the tour begins, or we can meet you at your hotel today. Welcome to the airport in Marrakech. After that, we will travel into the High Atlas Mountains and stop by Oukaimeden, which is 2,600 meters above sea level. There should be a good variety of native species as we travel through the farmed fields, including the Southern Grey Shrike, Little Owl, Sardinian Warbler, Spots Startling, Moroccan Magpie, Mossiers’ Redstarts, and House Bunting. We will look for the endemic Levaillant’s Green Woodpecker and Blue Rock Thrush a little higher up, among the rocky slopes.
We will look for the attractive African Crimson-Winged Finch on the snowline once we get at the Oukaimeden ski resort.The Atlas Horned Lark, Black Wheatear, Seebohm’s Wheatear, Alpine Chough, and Rock Sparrow are among the numerous species found here. Accommodations and dinner in the Atlas Mountains.

We depart from the mountains after an early breakfast, maybe stopping once more to look for Levaillant’s Woodpecker. From Marrakech’s level plains, we head back uphill and make the long and breathtaking trip to Boumalne du Dades over the Tizi-n-Tichka pass (2260 meters). We’ll attempt to find Tristram’s Warbler, another endemic, along the way. This species is difficult to locate and has highly specialized habitat needs away from its wintering grounds. We might begin to spot raptors like Bonelli’s Eagle and Long-legged Buzzard as the route climbs into the hills.
We’ll make a detour in Ouarzazate to investigate the barrage at Mansour Eddahbi before traveling to Boumalne du Dades. Cormorants, Herons, a variety of waders, Black-winged Stilts, Marbled Ducks, Ruddy Shelduck, and Maghreb Larks can all be seen here.Accommodations and dinner in Boumalne du Dades

In order to get to the Tagdilt Track before sunrise, we will start early today. This is unquestionably one of Southern Morocco’s best places to go bird watching. The Red-rumped Wheatear, Desert Wheatear, Maghreb Wheatear, Trumpeter Finch, Thekla Lark, Temminck’s Lark, Short-toed Lark, Cream-colored Courser, and, with any luck, the very itinerant Thick-billed Lark are all very likely to be spotted. We will spend the most of the day investigating this area if the heat permits; there is a fair potential that we will also see the Pharaoh Eagle Owl. We will return to Ouarzazate after seeing the Dades Gorges, which are home to Bonelli’s Eagle and Tristram’s Warbler breeding grounds, in the early afternoon.Accommodations and dinner in Ouarzazate.

We will cross the anti-Atlas Mountains, enter the Souss Valley, and continue on to Agadir after a lengthy trip to the west. First, we’ll look for wheatears and different kinds of larks by the side of the road.We saw Spanish Sparrow, Cirl Bunting, Laughing Dove, and Black Crowned Tchagra in the Souss Valley.There might be Little and Pallid Swifts above Taroudant. We finally reach our two-night stay at our hotel in Agadir following yet another thrilling stop. Accommodations and dinner in Agadir

The Atlantic Coast: We can reach the coast in time if we start early. We’ll spend the morning in Sous Massa National Park. While the distinctive call of Black-crowned Tchagras reverberates from dense cover, we will explore the vegetation along the water’s edge for skulking Squacco Heron and walk the entire length of this significant location for the endangered Bald Ibis, one of the rarest birds in the world with a sizable bird population.
The easier-to-observe birds include the Marbled Duck, Marsh Harrier, Osprey, Black-shouldered Kite, Glossy Ibis, Squacco and Purple Herons, Ruddy Shelduck, Plain Martin, and maybe Tawny Eagle. Possible species include the Great Spotted Cuckoo, Pallid Swift, Spotless Starling, Western Olivaceous, Moustached, Savi’s, and Common Bulbul warblers.
Following lunch, we will drive into the semi-arid steppes of the Souss valley in search of sandgrouse, cream-colored coursers, stone curlews, and lesser short-toed larks. The Oued Sous, a beautiful area renowned for waders, terns, and massive flocks of roosting gulls like Mediterranean, Audouin’s, and Slender-billed, will be our next stop in the afternoon.Sardinian Warbler, Zitting Cisticola, and Greater Flamingo Accommodations and dinner in Agadir.

We leave for the desert south of Agadir after breakfast in order to spend two nights in Guelmim, a charming village in northern Africa known as the “Gateway to the Western Sahara.” We will spend around five hours driving south, stopping along the way to search for Black wheatear in the untamed Anti-Atlas Mountains before descending in the direction of Guelmim. A few miles to the southeast is where we start our desert excursion in the hopes of seeing Spanish Sparrow, Fulvous Babblers, and White-crowned Wheatear in the settlement.
Accommodations and dinner in Guelmim.

Following our hotel breakfast, we will travel southwest of Guelmim via the Tan-Tan route, which leads all the way to the republic of Mauritania. Even though the most sought-after desert species can be found practically anywhere, there are a few places we can go to in the hopes of seeing the Trumpeter Finch, Greater Hoopoe and Temminck’s Horned Larks, Bar-tailed Lark, Cream-colored Courser, Long-legged Buzzard, and Desert and Red-rumped Wheatears. If we’re lucky, we might spot Spectacled Warblers, Scrub, and Thick-billed Larks in a wayside wadi.
Accommodations and dinner in Guelmim.

Following breakfast, we depart Guelmim and travel through the Atlas Mountains to return to Agadir, stopping occasionally to observe birds. In the late afternoon, we reach Agadir or make our way to the airport, where our journey comes to an end.