Birding in France and Wildlife Tours
Birding Languedoc is the only organisation offering locally operated bird watching and wildlife tours to the beautiful Languedoc region of southern France.
From our base just south of Narbonne, on the western shores of the Mediterranean, we cover an area that includes a multitude of habitats from the high mountains, lakes and plateaux of the eastern Pyrenees to the south, through the Corbières hills, coastal lagoons and vineyards of the Narbonnaise, up into the Minervois hills a little further north.
These extremely varied habitats are home to an equally good range of birds. An attractive diversity of resident species provide year-round interest, whilst spring and autumn migration add considerably to the list, as do a whole host of colourful and tuneful breeding birds. One of the top areas for birdwatching in France, the Languedoc covers the majority of the emblematic Mediterranean species.
The members of our small, friendly multilingual team live locally and are all passionate about sharing the amazing fauna and flora of this little-known and unspoilt region with other natural history enthusiasts. We are sure you will agree that you always see more with a local guide! Our intimate knowledge of the area means that we know all the best spots, what can be seen at any given moment and how best to adapt each day to the particular conditions so that you get the best possible experience.
Our team is made up of professional local wildlife experts and a fully bilingual tour leader who fell in love with the area on moving here over 15 years ago. Together we host small-group fixed-date tours, custom tours and scheduled day trips, as well as offering private guiding services.
We strongly believe that it is the whole experience that counts and not just the list of species you can tick off. Our attention to customer service and choice of accommodation reflects this as we focus on warm, welcoming and friendly guest houses and hotels offering delicious locally sourced food and wine – so that you can enjoy the full experience of your birding or wildlife trip to the south of France.
Whilst our main focus is on providing high-quality birding trips, we also work with local specialists in butterflies, reptiles and plants and sometimes host guest guides who are international specialists in their field.
You can even come by train from London or Paris for a low carbon travel option to discover some wonderful Mediterranean wildlife with Birding Languedoc. All our tours offer a 50€ discount for participants travelling by train.
COVID-19
We commit to putting in place all the necessary precautions to allow you to enjoy a birding or wildlife trip and feel safe (e.g. disinfecting the minibus before your arrival)! And we commit to working closely with all accommodation providers to ensure that their premises meet Covid cleaning requirements. Both our tour leader and our guide are double vaccinated.
If you wish to avoid sitting in a minibus with people you don’t know, why not put together a group and we can give you a quote for a bespoke birdwatching or wildlife tour just for your group.
Please contact us if you have concerns or wish to hear more about the precautions we are taking at our end to ensure your safety and well-being.
Coming by train may well be a safer option than travelling by plane and we can guide you through the different options.
Birding Languedoc is a non-profit organisation, set up to improve the knowledge and understanding of local wildlife and to promote its conservation through education and sustainable tourism. Most wildlife companies will contribute 10% of their profits to helping wildlife, but as we are a non-profit organisation ALL our profits are reinvested into local projects.
Birding Languedoc is currently supporting two important local projects:
- The Jardin Botanique de Foncaude: Covering 7 hectares of the Feuilla river valley this fascinating botanical garden is a haven for wildlife. Established by his father over the past 30 years, Jeremy Jalabert and our local bird guide Karline Martorell are now resident on-site and have plans to develop much-needed visitor facilities. Birding Languedoc is supporting this project financially but also on the ground to develop the capacity of the garden to host visitors, installing benches, composting toilets and information boards.
- Med Migration: Migration counting at the Leucate headland helped highlight how local hunting was impacting the European Honey-buzzard population and successfully managed to convince the hunters to stop shooting these magnificent birds. The migration count then stopped! But Sébastien Roques managed to find funding to relaunch the spring migration count in 2020, demonstrating the incredible numbers of European Honey-buzzard but also many other species that pass over this important site. The historic data is invaluable in order to highlight changes in different species numbers passing through, but current data needs to cover at least three years to be meaningful. Birding Languedoc is helping Med Migration to find finance for the migration count for at least the next two years (2021 & 2022).
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