Take this great opportunity to join BirdID on an unforgettable learning experience to Morocco and the Atlas mountains! Our goal is to learn as many species of birds as possible – the North-African specialities in particular

March every year, as long as there are enough participants

The teaching will be in english. We start in Marrakesh and drive east towards the Atlas mountains, a lovely landscape with peaks and cliffs, rivers and some farmland. Depending on the snow, we may reach as high as 3000 m asl.! Lammergeier is possibly seen, and perhaps also the endemic Levaillant`s Green Woodpeckers. We will probably also see Blue Rock Trush, Ring Ouzel,  African Blue Tit, Alpine Accentor, Barbary Partridge, Shore Lark, Black Redstart, Crimson-winged Finch, Rock Sparrow, Cirl Bunting  and several others.  

East towards Boumalne, we find endless stony desert teaming of birds – larks in particular. Temminck`s Horned-, Desert-, Thick-billed-, Lesser Short-toed-, Short-toed-, Hoopoe-, Crested-, Thekla`s- and Skylark are all possible here as well as White-crowned Black-, Mourning- and Red-rumped Wheatears. Long-legged Buzzards and Lanners hunt the area, and three species of sandgrouse breed in the area.  

We continue to the Sahara desert, where we may find some exclusive desert birds such as African Desert Warbler, Tristram`s Warbler, Desert Sparrow, Bar-tailed Desert Lark, Desert Wheatear, Brown-necked Raven and Houbara Bustard. The two last days are spent at the coast, driving via the famous Sous valley. Here we will find farmland, lakes and estuaries, with a diverse  bird fauna. Among the numerous wetland birds we expect to find several species of herons, Glossy Ibis and not least, the endangered Northern Bald Ibis. Marbled Teal and Ruddy Shelduck can be numerous as well as lots of waders and gulls – Audouin`s Gull included. Besides we hope to find Moussiers Redstart, Black-crowned Tchagra, Brown-throated Sand Martin and a lot more. 

The price for the whole trip will be 350 Euro / 3800 NOK per personflights not included. You pay this in front of the trip. This price includes hotel-standard accommodation (2-3 persons per room), breakfast and dinner all days and transport in minibus (about 2000 km in total). If you need a single room, you pay approx. 100 Euro extra.

Guide and teacher are paid by Nord University, securing high quality and an economic trip for the students.

You have to buy your own lunch. We will drop by restaurants when possible, but some lunches will be in the field.  We recommend withdrawing 1000 dirham (92 €), which will be added to a pool for lunches for everybody for the whole trip. The exact amount will vary slightly from year to year.

The fieldcourse is open for all nationalities, and we only require that you pass the exams in Western palearctic bird sound and picture before you can send your application for the trip.

The students are given admission to the field study according to the date of application. There is no deadline for sending an application. For the coming year we need the application latest 15th of November, we will go through the list of applications and take contact with all, and we will decide about the trip 1st of December

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