Holidays to bring birders flocking

As the Big Garden Birdwatch begins in Britain, James Lowen looks further afield to a world of avian A-listers

Some people will be doing it in their pyjamas, others over cereal and toast from their breakfast table. Today and tomorrow, the number of people counting birds in Britain will exceed (by 125,000) the number who attended last weekend’s Premier League football matches. All will be participating in the Big Garden Birdwatch – the annual event organised by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), which this year marks its 40th anniversary.

Since 1979, British bird lovers have collectively spent eight million hours listing the 130 million birds visiting their bird tables and lawns in this, the world’s largest “citizen-science” survey of garden wildlife. We British love our birds – and rightly so, given the avian spectacles on our doorstep, from immense gatherings of shore birds and wild geese in Norfolk to raucous seabird colonies and charismatic visitors from the Arctic and the Mediterranean.

But there comes a time when even this ornithological richness isn’t enough. For the true enthusiast, more exotic birds and locations beckon. From dazzling birds of paradise in Papua New Guinea to elegant tanchos in Japan and colourful hyacinth macaws in Brazil’s Pantanal, the world is your oystercatcher.

Here are 10 birdwatching holidays to get you out of your garden.

THE PANTANAL,

BRAZIL

A raucous roar heralds the arrival of the world’s largest parrot – and one of the rarest. The hyacinth macaw is also breathtakingly beautiful, its intense cobalt plumage offset by a sunny yellow grin. It’s a mainstay of any visit to the world’s largest