Eilat and the southern Arava

These tours focus on the southern end of the country and are excellent as a start for those who plan to enter Israel via Eilat airport or as part of a winter vacation in Eilat.

What to expect?
This is the best time to see the Striated Scops Owls, that winter in small wadies around the city, and try for the elusive Hume's Tawny Owl. Among the local Desert birds this is a good time to see Mourning, White-crowned Black, Hooded, Desert and Isabelline Wheatears, House Bunting, Sinai Rosefinch, Arabian Warbler, large flocks of Dead-sea Sparrow, Desert Finch, Arabian Babbler, Pale Rock Martin, Little Green Bee-eater and of course the sought-after Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse.

Mourning Wheatear ( Oenanthe lugens) and Desert Finch ( Rhodospiza obsoleta)

Eilat and the southern Arava also host rare and scarce eastern and Middle-eastern species such as Buff-bellied (small numbers) and Olive-backed Pipits (rare), Isabelline and Steppe Grey Shrikes (rare), Hume's and Yellow-browed Warblers (both rare), Desert, Cyprus (small numbers) and Menetries's Warblers (rare) and good numbers of Syrian Serins. It's also the best time to see Brown Booby (rare in recent years) and Red-tailed Wheatear (not every year). At the North Beach and K.20 saltpans, one can expect to see and study the plumages of Pallas's, Siberian, Caspian, Armenian, Slender-billed, Mediterranean and White-eyed Gulls. There are usually hundreds of Greater flamingos, waterfowl (including Ferruginous Duck) and waders. Real vagrants such as Red-wattled Lapwing and Grey Hypocolius are not un-expected.

Syrian Serin (Serinus syriacus)