Quetzal Tours

09/14/2024

If you have not yet donated to a conservation project this year, here is your opportunity. We are still short $3500 of my fundraising goal. Please help if you can. Details at the link below. Thank you!

White-bearded Helmetcrests

06/10/2024

Announcing a new upcoming birding tour:

COLOMBIA -CENTRAL AND WESTERN ANDES

Led by Oswaldo Cortes and Nick Komar

September 16-26, 2024

Price: US$3600 double occupancy
Group size: 8 plus leaders.

Contact Nick to reserve your seat and/or request itinerary. Cell/text 970-449-3645, or email [email protected].

Photo credit: Buffy Helmetcrest by Oswaldo Cortes

03/16/2024

Announcing upcoming guided birding opportunity:

LESSER PRAIRIE-CHICKEN Lek with Joe Kipper. This a 2-day, 1-night Jeep tour from The Colorado Front Range (Denver area), departing 8 AM Monday March 25
and returning Tuesday night 8 PM. Customers will ride with Joe from and to the US34 park n ride at I25 in Loveland, Colorado, unless other arrangements are made directly with Joe. The group overnights in Oakley Kansas, where they will join Kansas guide Jim Millensifer at a private blind for viewing the lek on Tuesday morning. The fee includes all transportation, gasoline, lodging at the Kansas Country Inn in Oakley, viewing blind access fees and professional guiding, as well as a hearty country breakfast at the Inn following the morning lek visit. The fee does not cover other meals or tips.

There is limited space on this tour. Maximum group size is four. We will share the photography blind with 6 other viewers. Jim offers this special opportunity under license with the Kansas Department of Natural Resources.

Besides the displaying Lesser Prairie-chickens, a threatened species that Is no longer viewable in Colorado, we expect to see Greater Prairie-Chicken, other pheasants and quail, several raptor species and other specialized prairie species. We will look for longspurs, Mountain Plovers and Burrowing Owl in Colorado along the route to and from western Kansas. 

The fee is $400 per person (double occupancy; single supplement is $50.). Couples pay $600. Make checks payable to Quetzal Tours. Call Nick Komar at 970-449-3645 for more info or to reserve your seat.

02/19/2024

Announcing SOUTH TEXAS RARITY SWEEP, Feb 26-Mar 2, 2024. Group size 4, 1 seat available. There are more than a dozen vagrant bird species visiting the Rio Grande Valley and lower Gulf coast right now including this Cattle Tyrant. We will go for all of them and more! Guided by Nick Komar. Cost $1800 includes ground transportation, driver, guide, access fees, local guide fees. Meals not included. Double occupancy. Single supplement $200.

Locations will visit include the Santa Margarita Ranch, Salineño Wildlife Reserve, Roma Bluffs, Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park, National Butterfly Center, Frontera Audubon Center, Estero Llano Grande State Park, Oliveira Park Parrot Roost, Resaca de la
Palma State Park, the Brownsville dump, UT Texas at Brownsville.

Target vagrant species include Mottled Owl, Bare-throated Tiger-Heron, Brown Jay, Crane Hawk, Rose-throated Becard, Gray-collared Becard, Roadside Hawk, Fan-tailed Warbler, Golden-crowned Warbler, Crimson-collared Grosbeak, Bar-tailed Godwit, Cattle Tryant and more.

The birding pace will be slow but focused. Many of these species are skulkers and we will find them
using my most valuable birding tool- patience. We will also be looking for all the resident specialty species of south TX such as Common Pauraque, Ringed and Green Kingfishers, Muscovy, Red-billed Pigeon, Morelet’s Seedeater, Audubon’s Oriole, Aplomado Falcon, Whooping Crane, etc.

You can join the tour in Denver area Monday afternoon Feb 26 or along our driving route or on the morning of February 27 in Corpus Christie. Birding will begin Tuesday morning, Feb 27 at Corpus Christie. Bruce Wild will be the driver. Cole Wild will be the spotter and second driver. I (Nick) will be the guide and your personal Birding Assistant/Mentor. Please share this announcenent to your birding network.

01/13/2024

I published perhaps my final blog post for my 2023 Big Year of birding. Updated species number is 890, ten short of my goal of 900 species in the USA and Territories. One benefit of visiting the Territories was seeing some of the rarest species in the world. In late December, I spent 8 days in the Mariana Islands with Nick Komar where we observed some incredibly rare birds such as this Mariana Crow (wild population 215 birds) and other critically endangered species such as Guam Rail, Micronesian Megapode, Tinian Monarch and Saipan Reed-Warbler. Here is a link to the blog: biggestyear2023.blogspot.com.

12/17/2023

Two weeks to go and I am still 50 species short of my goal of 900 bird species in USA and territories. I just completed 6 days in American Samoa with Oliver Komar. The Samoan Myzomela was one of 20 year birds we found there. More details at Biggestyear2023.blogspot.com. Tomorrow I am off to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

10/10/2023

Hurricanes result in strange birds turning up in unusual places. I discuss this phenomenon in my latest Big Year blog entry. Read it at https//:biggestyear2023.blogspot.com. Do you think this Cuban Trogon might someday turn up in Florida? Join me and Cuban tour leader Arturo Kirkconnell January 20-30, 2024 as we track down all of Cuba‘s endemic bird species. A few spots are still available on this Partnership in International Birding tour. Photo of Cuban Trogon by Arturo Kirkconnell Jr.

09/15/2023

For those of you following my Big Year birding effort, I just published a new blog post, describing my latest birding tour of Southeastern Arizona in August. The Five-striped Sparrow (see photo below) at Box Canyon was one of our target species. Comments are welcome. See the blog here: https://biggestyear2023.blogspot.com/2023/09/filling-gaps-southeastern-arizona.html?m=1.

09/04/2023

Almost caught up with my blog posts for my “Biggest Year In American Birding”. I published three new posts last week, including the story behind the American Flamingo pictured below. You can read the blogposts here:
https://biggestyear2023.blogspot.com.

Also, I am announcing some upcoming birding trips you can join, including:

**Hawaii (Oahu and Kauai) October 18-23

**American Samoa October 23-30

**Guam and Northern Mariana Islands Nov 2-14.

Also I’m gathering a small group to visit CUBA January 20-30, 2024.

Contact me offline if you are interested in any of these trips.

07/04/2023

My tour to Gambell Alaska was well worthwhile. I just posted my blog about it.
Best bird there for me was this first summer Ross’s Gull, first spotted by Brian Gibbons I believe. Photo was taken by Oliver Komar. This was 701 for my USA and Territories Big Year. I’m thinking of chasing rarities in Delaware or Florida this week. Anyone wanna join to share costs? Message me privately. Link to blog is biggestyear2023.blogspot.com.

03/07/2023

Announcing upcoming tour:

Experience spring migration in GAMBELL, Alaska, June 3-9, 2023

Guided by Gambell experts Steve Heinl and Aaron Lang. Capacity 7 persons.

Cost: $5900 Includes round trip air tickets from Anchorage, food and lodging for 6 nights, ground transportation on Gambell, expert guides.

Located on St Lawrence Island, Gambell is among the westernmost towns in the USA, populated by a Yupik community. Within sight of the Asian continent, it regularly hosts Asian species of Shorebirds and Landbirds during spring migration. Recent Asian strays seen by Aaron and Steve include White-tailed Eagle, Lesser Sand-plover, Common Ringed Plover, Terek Sandpiper, Gray-tailed Tattler, Common Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, Wood Sandpiper, Black-tailed Godwit, Common Snipe, Common Cuckoo, Eurasian Skylark, Common House Martin, Common Chiffchaff, Red-flanked Bluetail, Stonechat, Dusky Thrush, Naumann’s Thrush, Olive-backed Pipit, Red-throated Pipit, Rustic Bunting, Brambling, Common Rosefinch, and Hawfinch.

Another attraction are the large numbers of alcids, including Dovekie, Common Murre, Thick-billed Murre, Black Guillemot, Pigeon Guillemot, Ancient Murrelet, Kittlitz’s Murrelet, Parakeet Auklet, Least Auklet, Crested Auklet, Horned Puffin, and Tufted Puffin.

Lots of other species of Alaskan birds await you in Gambell. These trips are usually booked years in advance. However this trip was set up as part of Nick Komar’s Biggest Year in USA Birding. There are currently five seats remaining. Reserve yours now. Call or text Nick at 970-449-3645.

03/01/2023

Tour Announcement: Central California with Nick Komar and Logan Kahle, Mar 8-16, 2023.

One seat available. 250 species expected. $2000. Contact Nick at 970-449-3645 for details.

02/27/2023

The Quetzal Tours Sax-Zim Bog road-trip returned to Colorado yesterday after a fabulous week of winter birding in Northern MInnesota. Explore the eBird Trip Report here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/108290. Here are photo highlights with details in the captions. This tour was part of Nick Komar’s Biggest Year in USA Birding. Follow along at biggestyear2023.blogspot.com. Or join an upcoming tour. See tour schedule at pbase.com/quetzal/bigyear2023. Special thanks to Joe Kipper and Kathy Kay, who both contributed enormously to make this tour a great success.

01/27/2023

South Texas Day 8 ( final).

Today, Jan 26, 2023, we focused on adding a few more species to the trip list. We hoped to find 10 more species to reach 200 species before 2 pm when we needed to be at the airport for the flight home. We quickly picked up Yellow-headed Blackbird and Monk Parakeet. At Anzalduas Park, we assembled a great eBird checklist with 43 species but only added one new one, a Northern Parula. The final trip bird was courtesy of our friend Mark Hubinger: a staked-out Eastern Screech-Owl at the National Butterfly Center. See photo. We ended the trip at Roselawn Cemetery next to the McAllen airport where Irene spotted a beautiful Yellow-throated Warbler which was new for her trip. Final trip list: 194 species. The full report will be accessible via eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/102615. This tour of South Texas was part of Nick Komar’s Biggest Year effort to find 900 species in one year in the United States and its Territories. You can follow his progress at https://Biggestyear2023.blogspot.com.

01/27/2023

SOUTH TEXAS Day 7

Back at the Alamo Inn lodge for birders, situated in the heart of the best birding sites in the Rio Grande Valley, we began Jan 25, 2023, at Estero Llano Grande State Park. We arrived early and it was already crawling with birders. It’s reputation was well deserved and we added about 10 trip birds and several rarities including a staked-out Dickcissel and two Fulvous Whistling-Ducks. We helped identify a Broad-tailed Hunmingbird, perhaps the rarest bird we’d seen so far. The coolest bird was a Pauraque (see photo), one of our targets. After a quick Texas barbecue lunch, we visited Frontera Audubon Sanctuary in Weslaco. The visit was brief but very rewarding as we found the rarest bird of the trip, a Bay-breasted Warbler. Hopefully others will find this misplaced migrant (which in winter belongs in Panama or Colombia). We ended the day with a trip list total of 190 species.

01/25/2023

SOUTH TEXAS Day 6

On the morning of Jan 24, 2023, we awoke to rain in Port Aransas and spent the first three hours of daylight mostly birding from the vehicle, searching for new Trip Species along the bay shore near Corpus Christie. We added Dunlin, Least and Western Sandpipers. Piping Plover, Short-billed Dowitcher, and Gull-billed Tern. Heading south towards the Rio Grsnde Valley, a brief stop at the Sarita Rest Area enabled us to add Brewer’s Blackbird and Brown-headed Cowbird to our trip list. Late in the afternoon we successfully chased two rarities at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge: Northern Beardless Tyrannulet and Tropical Parula (see photo). Trip list now at 172 species. After a delicious Texas Barbecue dinner in Harlingen, we returned to the Alamo Inn for our final two nights in the Valley.