Birding in Morocco

Last March – April we spent 13 days in Morocco six days of which were birding with Mohamed Bargache and the other half was exploring the city of Marrakesh. We booked our own accommodation and paid our guide a day rate which kept the cost down.

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Ourika Valley

We started in the Atlas Mountains, finding the endemic Levaillant’s Woodpecker after a long search in the woods before heading up high for the higher altitude species at Oukaimeden. Unfortunately we dipped on Crimson-Winged Finch but several life-ticks for me made it a great day.

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Tichka Pass and Tagdilt Track

The next day we drove through the mountains birding on the way before checking out the Tagdilt track – essentially one of the best rubbish dumps for birding anywhere! That said some of the other scenery was spectacular.

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Bourmalne Dades

Next up we continued to the area around Bourmalne Dades including a walk into desert ravines finding both Pharaoh Eagle Owl and Lanner Falcon.

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Merzouga – Sahara Desert

Perhaps the top highlight of our trip was driving into the Merzouga Dunes at the start of the Sahara Desert. The birds were few and far between here but some of them were very special. First up were an Eastern Subalpine Warbler and Desert Sparrows at our desert camp.

The next day we were up early and saw some fantastic birds during a long day. The main highlight was tracking an Egyptian Nightjar thanks to a local Berber and seeing a Peregrine Falcon (Barbery sub species) hunting Spotted Sandgrouse.

The other hightlight was just seeing the dunes upclose which were stunning in the late evening or morning light.

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Drive to the coast (Agadir)

The next day was mainly a driving day to get all the way across to Agadir to see some coastal species. We did see some good birds too on the way.

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Souss Massa

At the coast we saw a completely different mix of birds to elsewhere in Morocco. Our main target was the Northern Bald Ibis which we were delighted to see in good numbers.

Altogether over the six days we saw 163 species of birds of which 69 were new life ticks for me. Checkout the full trip eBird trip report here.