Red Hill Birding

Black Rosy-Finches are a big highlight during our time in the Beartooth Mountains!

Steve and his group have just wrapped up the main portion of our Montana tour and are currently on the road down to Idaho to seek out Cassia Crossbill, Flammulated Owl and so much more.

https://www.redhillbirding.com/montana

Adam and Steve are currently leading one of our most popular itineraries, Montana & Yellowstone with a Cassia Crossbill extension! Yesterday, they worked their way up the spectacular Beartooth Pass, where in cold temps they found both the pass's namesake (a grizzly bear) as well as their main target bird, Black Rosy Finch. They found another classic bird of the Rockies, American Dipper (pictured here), on the tour's first afternoon near Bozeman. Keep up the good work!

Now that European Goldfinch is officially on the American Birding Association's checklist, we have started getting requests from out-of-town birders to help them find it for their ABA lists. Fortunately, Josh and Adam both live close to goldfinch central in the northeasternmost corner of Illinois, so we have had great success showing them to visiting birders. This photo of a beautiful adult was taken by Washington state birder Clark Satre on a day trip with Adam in May. Josh will be out this week with a couple from Georgia hoping for similar success.

Nathan and group are on Alaska's remote St. Paul Island in the middle of the Bering Sea right now. And they are seeing some amazing birds--both expected and unexpected--while they are out there.

Panama update!

Our upcoming March 2025 tours are nearly full.

We now only have space for a single traveler or couple in the last double room available at the Canopy Lodge & Tower!

There aren't enough good things to say about visiting the Canopy Lodge & Tower, and we are excited to return for a third time with Adam guiding. From thoughtful birding itineraries to delicious meals and beautiful rooms, staying with The Canopy Family, Panama is top-notch. We can't wait to share it with so many of you!

Learn more about the tour and register for the last spot here:
https://www.redhillbirding.com/panama-tower-lodge

We just wrapped another successful trip to the Indiana Dunes Birding Festival! Thanks to everyone who joined the festival, went birding with us, and dropped by our booth to learn more about what we do. Until next time!

We only have one spot available on our Winter in Southeast Arizona tour next January! This is a short, bird filled winter getaway to a beautiful part of the country. We will look for desert birds, mountain birds, water birds, hummingbirds, and oh so many raptors and sparrows. The dates are January 15-20 and it will be led by Josh Engel. Come join us! https://www.redhillbirding.com/arizona-winter

Montezuma Quail made the Top 5 Birds of the Trip lists on both of our recent Texas Hill Country & Big Bend tours. With views like this at the feeders in Davis Mountains State Park, it's no wonder. We've been running this trip since 2017 and this was the first year that this rare and secretive species was visiting the feeders there. I'd say it was worth the wait, but having guided all of those trips, I wish they had been there every time! Photo by tour leader Josh Engel.

It's finally here! After several months of planning, we can finally share that the inaugural Urban Birding Festival is coming to Chicago on September 14 and 15. Details can be found on the new festival website. Be on the lookout for a full list of trips, events, and registration details this summer. But in the meantime, save the date! http://www.theurbanbirdingfestival.org/

We had three local trips running yesterday morning in the Chicago area--not bad for a weekday! Click on the photos to see each group's highlights from a beautiful spring day.

People love our day trips in the Chicago area. We received these very kind words from someone who bought a private half-day trip as a gift for her father, which Adam led on Sunday (when he also took this beautiful photo of a Black-throated Green Warbler).

"Thank you for such a wonderful experience last weekend. I was amazed by how much variety we saw in such a short time. Adam, your expertise is impressive and you are a fantastic guide. You can tell you love the craft and it shows through naturally.

"This was a gift for my Dad, and he is hard to impress! He was blown away and I would count this experience as a top memory of the year. Personally I didn’t know much about birding and after this trip I am really excited about learning more.

"Thank you for the easy communication, the seamless gift certificate experience, and just generally being easy to work with. I look forward to a future opportunity to work with you again."

https://www.redhillbirding.com/chicagobirding

Our spring half-day trip groups are having a blast as we enter peak spring birding in May. Limited spots are available on a few trips throughout the Chicagoland area if you still want to join in on the fun!

https://www.redhillbirding.com/localtrips

What do these four birds have in common (besides being awesome)? Can you guess the theme and name of Chicago's first ever birding festival based on these four birds together? Find out on May 10!

Red Hill Birding is back in Southern Illinois and having a great time!

So many targets seen already with Adam Sell and Jeff Bilsky leading a great group of mostly Lake-Cook Audubon members.

My Texas Hill Country & Big Bend tour just wrapped up, and what a trip it was! We had spectacular birds, a great group, beautiful scenery everywhere we looked, delicious local food, and blissfully cool weather.

On Day 1 we got great views of the iconic Golden-cheeked Warbler, a species that breeds only in the Hill Country of Texas, but even then it only squeaked into the Top 5 Birds of the Trip.

Now I'm ready for round two--I'm doing the trip all over again for a private group starting tomorrow! -Josh

Red Hill Birding is taking on Texas for the rest of the month. Josh is running our Hill Country & Big Bend tour, which includes witnessing the incredible Mexican Free-tailed Bat emergence at the Frio Bat Cave! Steve is soaking in spring migration along the coast, where our favorite neotropical migrants are beginning to arrive en masse. Texas is THE place to be in April!

https://www.redhillbirding.com/tours-2025

Adam's group is still going strong in West Mexico. Today they came across a leaking pipe, which birders know can present golden viewing opportunities, at Rancho La Noria in the mountains of Nayarit. This leak was particularly special, hosting about a dozen species, including three endemic hummingbirds, one of which is the highly range-restricted Mexican Woodnymph. Check the caption of Adam's digiscoped video for the complete list.

Our West Mexico Eclipse & Birding group were among the first people in North America to see the total solar eclipse on Monday! Is there a better way to start a tour than with endemic jays and a total solar eclipse?? (The answer is no.)

We planned our Eclipse & Birding tour there because it had the best combination of a high probability of clear skies, a long period of totality, and world class birding. And it worked out perfectly thanks to Eric and Adam's careful planning.

Adam sent through a few photos from the day. And there will be plenty more to come we are sure, especially since in the couple of days since the eclipse they've seen Tufted Jay and Eared Quetzal, two of West Mexico's most sought after and spectacular endemics.

Steve, Juan Diego, and their group caught up with one of the most sought after birds in all of Central America yesterday, the mythical Rufous-vented Ground Cuckoo! It’s a forest dwelling cousin of the roadrunner that follows swarms of army ants, eating the critters that are fleeing from the ants’ path. And Steve got great photos to boot!

The March edition of Hilltop News is here! https://mailchi.mp/8bd0a561e83f/red-hill-birding-hilltop-news-october-13715496

The Sooty Thrush photo from our recent Costa Rica tour is just eye candy. Photo by tour leader Josh Engel.

On our just-completed Costa Rica tour, we spent an extraordinary hour surrounded by endemic birds in the jardín of Dantica Cloud Forest Lodge--Black-billed Nightingale Thrush, Ochraceous Wren, Ruddy Treerunner, Flame-throated Warbler, Yellow-winged Vireo, Black-capped Flycatcher, even Costa Rican Pygmy-Owl--but it was the pair of Collared Redstarts, foraging in a brush pile in front of us for the entire hour, that stole our hearts and earned itself the honor of being voted the Bird of the Trip. -Josh

Our back-to-back Costa Rica tours are up and running! One of the best things about Costa Rica is the wealth of birds on the grounds of the places we stay. Even at our airport hotel, avian surprises can be right in the parking lot!

We'll be sure to post some updates as the tours continue and be on the lookout for more Costa Rica tour announcements in the future. 🇨🇷🇨🇷

NEW TOUR ALERT 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Join our favorite British ex-pat Steve as he heads back across the pond in June 2025 to lead Red Hill Birding's first European tour! This trip will take in some of the best summer birding from Norfolk on the east coast to the North Wales coast in the west. With a maximum of just seven participants, we expect it to fill up fast.

Shorebirds will be in their breeding finery, impressive seabird colonies will be hives of activity, and nesting season will be in full swing for the robins, reedlings, t**s, and many other songbirds that breed on the island.

This tour will soak it all in at a relaxed pace while staying in local inns and hotels, with a visit to Stonehenge in the mix and time to explore the historic city of Bath and various small villages along the way.

United Kingdom — Red Hill Birding 2025 June 10-22, 2025 Price: $6295 per person sharing Single room supplement: $1340 Guide: Steve Huggins Maximum of 7 participants

Due to cancellations, we have two available spots on our long sold-out Alaska II tour this summer, starting on June 20! Perfect for couples or travel buddies, but also available for solo travelers!

You will get to visit many of Alaska's world-famous birding areas--Nome, Utqiagvik (the northernmost town in the United States, formerly called Barrow), and the Kenai Fjords, with an option pre-tour extension (starting June 16) to the spectacular and remote St. Paul in the Bering Sea's Pribilof Islands.

Bring on the puffins, auklets, ptarmigans, displaying shorebirds, whales, vast landscapes, and loads of other great birds and mammals! This tour features fantastic photographic opportunities along with top notch birding & wildlife.

Alaska in Summer — Red Hill Birding St. Paul Pre-trip May 29-June 2, 2024 Price: $3795 per person sharing* Single Room Supplement: $730 Guide: Nathan Goldberg and local guides

Nathan sent through a few photos from his super successful Southern California tour last month. This route really offers a little of everything--ocean birds, desert birds, mountain birds, cool mammals, and the many exotic parrots that call SoCal home these days.

There are a few spots available on next February's tour. https://www.redhillbirding.com/california-south

Coming in fast!

Our spring half-day trips are live and open for registration. Space is limited on these popular trips, so the time to register is now. We look forward to birding with so many of you this spring!

https://www.redhillbirding.com/localtrips

Brown Jay was voted #1 Bird of the Trip on Josh's South Texas tour that wrapped up yesterday! They showed a corvid's curiosity, coming right up to check us out as we scanned for birds on a bluff overlooking the Rio Grande. It was a memorable experience, but it was also just one of many incredible rarities that we saw on the tour.

https://www.redhillbirding.com/southtexas

One of the avian highlights of this year's San Diego Bird Festival was Ridgway's Rail. Normally secretive and difficult to find, our sponsored field trips to the Tijuana Slough NWR were timed to match high tide, which can bring them out of dense cover for closer views. Each field trip had at least 4 rails seen and many more heard. In fact, each of 's trips had one walk right in front of the group!