Bird watching
I consider ornithological tours one of my star services, mainly because it is a personal passion. I love bird watching and bird photography and I know where to find the particularly interesting species.
Seville and its region offer a varied landscape with very good opportunities for bird watching. The best known area for this purpose is the National Park of Doñana and its surroundings. Many tours are organised inside the park itself, but for bird watching the surroundings of Doñana are more interesting, especially the rice fields, marshes, and old river arms that are immediately south of the city of Seville. Examples of species that regularly can be observed are: Black Stork, Flamingo, Glossy Ibis, Bittern, Black-winged Stilt, Red-knobbed Coot, Purple Swamp hen, White-headed Duck, Black-shouldered Kite and Spanish Imperial Eagle.
Natural parks in mountainous areas up north are also interesting: the Sierra Norte of Seville and Sierra de Aracena y Picos de Aroche in the province of Huelva are less than two hours away from the city and offer a wealth of bird species, such as the Spanish imperial Eagle, Short-toed Eagle, Cinereous (Black) and Griffon Vulture and Black Stork.
Another area of great ornithological interest is ‘la campiña’, the countryside of Seville, located east of the city, with its extensive cereal fields. In this landscape the steppe bird populations like the Great and Little Bustard, Stone Curlew, Common Pratincole, Black-shouldered Kite, Calandra lark and the Pin-tailed and Black-bellied Sand grouse are important.
In spring or autumn could (or should) be included in the program the Strait of Gibraltar, key location in Europe for observing the migration of (soaring) birds.