Fascinating Morocco with its breath-taking scenery, delicious food, rich history, and fabulous birds is fast becoming an essential birding destination.  Boasting the richest avifauna in the entirety of North Africa, few Muslim countries offer the combination of a genuinely friendly atmosphere, a solid tourist infrastructure, and virtually no visitor restrictions.  Habitats vary from the estuaries on the Mediterranean Sea, corkbark oak woodlands in the lowlands, to the high, snow-covered Atlas Mountains, and—of course—the red sand dunes of the great Sahara desert.  Ancient adobe cities bustle with activity and the bazaars explode with sights, sounds, and smells that sear the senses.  Mud-walled buildings line souks (long narrow alleyways) filled with carpets, leather goods, exotic foods and spices, and milling throngs of tribal peoples, vendors in costumes, snake charmers, and craftsmen creating yet more goods. After arriving in Casablanca, your Moroccan adventure begins with a transfer to the famous coastal city of Agadir.  Lagoons and estuaries in and around the city teem with ducks, waders, terns, and gulls, and the narrow coastal shelf supports good numbers of Barbary Falcon, Barbary Partridge, and the stunning little Moussier’s Redstart, a North African endemic.  The nearby rugged coastline also hosts one of the world’s most critically endangered bird species, the Northern Bald Ibis—or Waldrapp.  It is estimated only about 220 Waldrapps survive, and the Agadir area represents their last stronghold.  We then climb up the impressive Middle Atlas Mountains around Oukaimeden.  Achieving elevations above 13,000 feet (4,000m), and mantled in snow at the time of our visit, the Atlas Mountains are the highest range in North Africa.  We will explore  the  forest-clad  slopes  of  the   stupendous  Atlas  range   for  a  suite  of  North  African  endemics, including Atlas Flycatcher, Tristram’s Warbler, and the local Levaillant’s Woodpecker.  Here, too, are such European treats as Great Spotted Woodpecker, Short-toed Treecreeper, Coal Tit, White-throated Dipper, Ring Ouzel, and both Red-billed and Yellow-billed (or Alpine) Choughs.  A stop at the ancient town of Boumalne will permit us to experience the famous Tagdilt track, a location for such desert species as the dainty Cream-colored Courser, elegant Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, and delicately tinted Greater Hoopoe-Lark. At Erg Chebbi, close to the Algerian border, we will enter the world’s largest desert.  The Sahara, of course, is more than endless miles of sand dunes.  Microhabitats include stone outcrops and cliffs, palm-trimmed canyons, endless gravel pans, and the all-important oases featured in so many legendary Hollywood films.  After a search for the rare Desert Sparrow and African Desert Warbler, we will quench our thirst on traditional mint tea in one of Erg Chebbi’s colorful desert cafes. From here we cross the sparsely vegetated plains of the southeast in search of specialized desert birds such as Du Pont’s Lark, Black-bellied and Crowned Sandgrouse, and Trumpeter Finch.  The tour concludes with a visit to the Fez Medina, probably the largest car-free shopping bazaar in the world.

Cost of Morocco, Atlas & Sahara includes all ground and internal air transportation, all accommodations, all meals, and all entrances, beginning & ending in Casablanca, Morocco.—$3995.