Oman Desert, Mountains, and Sea Tour

Tour Overview

Our Oman Desert, Mountains, and Sea Tour is timed to take advantage of one of the most productive periods of the year for birding in the Sultanate. Beginning in the Hajar Mountains, we focus on a suite of resident and wintering specialties at a time when conditions are particularly favorable for finding owls. Key targets include Omani Owl, Pharaoh Eagle-Owl, and Pallid Scops-Owl, alongside species such as Sand Partridge, Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse, Plain Leaf Warbler, Rufous-backed Redstart, Hume's Wheatear, and Variable Wheatear.

​

We then spend a few days exploring the inland deserts of central Oman, allowing ample time to search for some of the country's more localized and difficult-to-find species. Potential highlights include Crowned, Spotted, and Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, as well as Arabian and Bar-tailed Larks, Hypocolius, Nile Valley Sunbird, and, with luck, Sykes's Nightjar. The additional time spent in this region also provides opportunities to encounter unexpected vagrants, of which there have been many over the years.

​

The final portion of the tour takes us south into Dhofar, beginning in the under-birded borderland region around Rakhyut and Dalkhut before continuing east toward Salalah. Here Arabian endemics such as Arabian Partridge, Arabian Eagle-Owl, Arabian Grosbeak, and Yemen Serin are joined by a rich supporting cast of Afrotropical species like Bruce's Green-Pigeon, Spotted Thick-knee, Black-crowned Tchagra, and Abyssinian White-eye, as well as wintering Indomalayan species like Cotton Pygmy-Goose, Medium Egret, and Pheasant-tailed Jacana.

We conclude with a pelagic excursion into the Arabian Sea, where Socotra Cormorant, Jouanin's Petrel, Persian Shearwater, Red-billed Tropicbird, Brown Booby, among other less common seabirds, are possible.