10-Day Morocco Birding Tour: Souss-Massa, Sahara & High Atlas

Your Moroccan birding journey starts in Agadir. On arrival at Al Massira Airport your driver-guide is waiting for you and takes you to your hotel in the city.

In the afternoon, if your flight allows, you begin at the Oued Souss estuary, a short drive south. Greater Flamingos, spoonbills, herons and waders feed on the mudflats, and the sandbanks attract Audouin's Gulls and terns.

The riverside scrub may already give you your first Moussier's Redstart and Sardinian Warbler. Over dinner your guide talks you through the ten days ahead, from the coast to the Sahara and the High Atlas.

An early drive north along the coast brings you to Tamri and Cap Ghir, the main stronghold of the Northern Bald Ibis, a bird that survives in the wild almost only on this stretch of the Moroccan coast.

You watch the ibises from a distance as they feed on the coastal steppe, then scan the cliffs and the sea, where gannets, shearwaters and Audouin's Gulls pass offshore. Barbary Partridge, Black Wheatear and Thekla Lark live on the slopes.

On the return to Agadir you stop in the argan woods for Moussier's Redstart and Woodchat Shrike, and reach your hotel in the afternoon.

Today you head south to the Souss-Massa National Park and the lagoon at the mouth of the Oued Massa, one of the richest birding sites on the Atlantic coast of Morocco.

Along the river tracks, the scrub is the place for Black-crowned Tchagra, Moussier's Redstart and Barbary Partridge, while the reeds and open water hold Marbled Duck, Glossy Ibis, Purple Heron and Western Swamphen.

Northern Bald Ibises sometimes feed in the coastal fields here too. You return to Agadir in the late afternoon for your last night on the coast.

Leaving the coast, you cross the Souss plain to Taroudant through argan groves where Woodchat Shrikes and Spotless Starlings perch on the trees. The road then climbs into the Anti-Atlas past Taliouine, the centre of saffron growing.

On the stony slopes you stop for the birds of drier country: Maghreb Wheatear, Red-rumped Wheatear, Thekla and Desert Larks and, with luck, Long-legged Buzzard hunting over the plateau. It is a long day on the road, broken by these regular stops.

In the late afternoon you reach Ouarzazate, where you check in to a kasbah-style hotel for the night.

From Ouarzazate you follow the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs east to Skoura, where the palm grove and its gardens are good for Hoopoe, Common Bulbul and warblers.

The afternoon is spent on the Tagdilt track near Boumalne Dades, a stony plateau that is one of the classic lark sites of North Africa. Thick-billed and Temminck's Larks, Red-rumped Wheatear, Cream-coloured Courser and Black-bellied Sandgrouse are among the birds found here.

You stay in a kasbah-style guesthouse in the Dades Valley, close to the plateau for an early start tomorrow.

Before breakfast you return to the Tagdilt plateau, when the larks sing and sandgrouse fly to drink, for a second chance at any species you missed.

East of Tinghir you walk into the Todra Gorge, where Pale Crag Martins and Blue Rock Thrushes nest on the cliffs and Bonelli's Eagles sometimes pass overhead.

The afternoon drive crosses the hamada to Erfoud and Merzouga, with roadside stops for wheatears and larks. At the foot of Erg Chebbi you mount a camel for the ride to your camp as the sun sinks, then share a campfire dinner and an evening of drumming and songs before sleeping in a mid-range luxury desert camp (luxury camp on request).

Today is spent entirely in the Erg Chebbi area, the highlight of the desert part of the tour. Leaving before sunrise, you visit the edges of the dunes and the small oases for Desert Sparrow, Fulvous Babbler and African Desert Warbler, and watch the sky for sandgrouse heading to water.

Later in the morning the open plains around the dunes give chances of Greater Hoopoe-Lark, Bar-tailed and Desert Larks, Cream-coloured Courser and White-crowned Wheatear, while Lanner Falcons sometimes hunt along the dune edge.

After a rest during the hottest hours, the evening is set aside for owls and nightjars: a quiet visit to a Pharaoh Eagle-Owl site and, in the warmer months, a wait at dusk for Egyptian Nightjar.

A dawn walk at the edge of the dunes gives a last chance for the desert specialities before you leave Merzouga.

Driving west through Rissani, Alnif and Tazzarine, you cross the wide basin of the Maider, stopping at wadis and acacia scrub for Bar-tailed Lark, Blackstart, Desert Grey Shrike and Brown-necked Raven.

In the late afternoon you arrive in Ouarzazate and spend the night in a kasbah-style hotel.

In the morning you scan the El Mansour Eddahbi reservoir for Ruddy Shelduck, herons and waders before heading for the mountains.

The Tizi n'Tichka road crosses the High Atlas, with stops in the scrub for Tristram's Warbler and Barbary Partridge, and in the walnut groves of the northern slopes for Levaillant's Woodpecker.

You reach Marrakech in the afternoon and check in to a riad in the medina for your last night.

The tour ends high in the mountains. After an early breakfast you drive up the Ourika Valley to Oukaimeden, the best place within reach of Marrakech for the birds of the High Atlas.

On the high plateau you search for Crimson-winged Finch, Alpine and Red-billed Choughs, Atlas Horned Lark and Rock Sparrow, and scan the ridges for Golden Eagle and Bearded Vulture, now very rare in Morocco but still worth watching for.

In the early afternoon you return to Marrakech, where your driver drops you at Menara Airport or your hotel.