Trip Overview

This 15-day Budget Myanmar Overland Birding tour is an economical offering for those who want to travel within their limited budget, trying to keep their travel cost down. This birding tour has been designed to give us the opportunity to explore the same birding sites as our Standard Myanmar Birding tour, at an economical price. This tour will also provide a detailed overview of the five major birding sites of the country and search for all of Myanmar endemic and near endemic species, widespread Southeast Asian species and Asian mountain species, along with a number of highly sought-after Himalayan species that cannot be located in any of other Southeast Asian countries. We use the inexpensive way of transportation on the tour, taking public buses (very comfortable SCANIA buses) between the five destinations without taking any domestic flights to keep the cost down. We begin our birding tour with a private transfer from Yangon International Airport to our hotel in Yangon, where we spend the night with the opportunity to marvel at cultural highlights of the city including the world’ largest gilded pagoda of Shwedagon. Leaving Yangon early next morning, we make an overland journey by public bus to the former British hill station of Kalaw and spend two nights, providing us with the chance of exploring the best birding sites around Kalaw in search of the highly localized near endemic Burmese Yuhina and other highly sought-after Asian mountain birds. Then, two nights are spent at Inle Lake with an exploration of the best birding sites on the lake, searching in particular for the scare and habitat-restricted Jerdon’s Bushchat, near-endemic Collared Myna and the desirable Chinese Grassbird, along with a number of water birds on the Lake. We depart Inle Lake by a comfortable public bus heading west towards Bagan in the central dry zone of the country. With about 4000 ancient monuments including over 2000 well preserved ancient temples and pagodas dating back from 9th to 13th century, Bagan is the Southeast Asia’s richest archeological site as well as one of the most remarkable archeological sites in the world. We spend three nights in Bagan with the opportunity to explore the open acacia and dry forest in search of these sought-after endemic species such as Burmese Bushlark, White-throated Babbler, Ayeyawady Bulbul, Burmese Collared-Dove, Jerdon’s Minivet and the seldom-encountered Hooded Treepie, along with a selection of other fantastic species. On our final afternoon in Bagan, we’ll take a boat trip down the mighty Irrawaddy River to a grassy island in the middle of the River in search of Southeast Asia’s riverine species such as River Lapwing, Yellow-eyed, Striated Babblers, desirable White-tailed Stonechat, and Yellow-breasted Bunting. Departing Bagan, we take a private long drive towards the Natmataung (Mt.Victoria) national park in the Chin Hills which are mountain ranges that consist of a southern extension of the eastern Himalayas and we spend four nights at a comfortable mountain resort set inside the national park with an excellent opportunity of seeking these highly sought-after endemics such as White-browed Nuthatch and Burmese Tit, along with very near-endemic species such as Chin Hills Wren-Babbler, Mount Victoria Babax, Spot-breasted Scimitar Babbler, Striped and Brown-capped Laughingthrush as well as a huge selection of other sought-after Himalayan species that cannot be found anywhere in Southeast Asia. After three full days of exploring the Natmataung National Park, we make our way back down to dry and hot Bagan and spend the night before returning to Yangon. We return to Yangon by a comfortable public bus for our final night. Next morning we spend some time exploring the Hlawga Park in Yangon before your International departure flight, targeting the highly sought-after specie of Davison’s Bulbul and other lowland forest species. Afterward we make our way directly to Yangon International airport for your international departure flight home.

Practical Information

Practical Information