About Our Tours

Kingfisher Bird Tours are designed to combine serious bird watching with other natural history field activities and cultural highlights that are appropriate to the tour area. Our objective is to provide participants with an informative and memorable birding and natural history experience—one that will be savored for many years after the tour is over. We offer tours to areas that we are thoroughly acquainted with. We believe that this essential component of experienced and knowledgeable leadership is one of the most important features of a natural history tour.

Our tours are designed for energetic non-smokers who enjoy spending a full day in the field. Itineraries allow for a continuous, but comfortable, pace of bird watching. We also devote time to observing the other wildlife, flora, and geological phenomena of each tour area. Photography of birds and other wildlife is encouraged. We are dedicated to providing each participant with clear views of as many species as possible. Emphasis is placed on locating the rare or specialty bird species of each area. Our tours are carefully organized and we are prepared to handle the logistics with efficiency and professionalism.

We believe it is essential that natural history tour groups be limited in size. We feel this will provide you with a better, more personalized birding and educational experience. Our tours are all limited to 8 participants.

We feel our customer-oriented trips are the most personalized available today. Please feel free to call us if you have questions about any of these tours. We invite you to join us on a Kingfisher Bird Tour during 2008-2009!

General Information and Policies

Tour Fees:
The tour fees include all transportation, lodging, and meals during the tour. They also include entrance fees for parks and other natural areas and the guide services of the tour leader. Baggage handling assistance is provided by our leader when necessary.

Tour fees are based upon double occupancy. Participants will be assigned a suitable roommate, unless a single room is requested. The single room supplement listed for each tour provides a participant with single accommodations for all nights during the tour. If a suitable roommate is not available, a single room will be provided, and the single room supplement will be charged.

Unless specified in the detailed itineraries, the tour fees do not include transportation to and from the tour departure points, passport and visa fees, excess baggage charges, airport taxes, telephone calls, alcoholic beverages, laundry, special gratuities, or other items of a personal nature.

Accommodations and Transportation:
Tour accommodations will be in comfortable hotels, motels, or their equivalent. One-night stays are avoided whenever possible. Transportation will be in small buses or vans, unless otherwise specified in the detailed itineraries.

The Pace of Our Tours:
Kingfisher Bird Tours will involve a moderate amount of physical activity. All activities are optional. However, participants are expected to meet the basic tour schedule. Participants should be able to complete walks for periods of up to four hours. We usually walk 2-4 miles each day. Most of every non-travel day is spent in the field. We sometimes walk in rough terrain. We might depart before dawn to reach a prime birding area during the peak of bird activity.

Most meals are at sit-down restaurants. We’ll sometimes take picnic meals with us in order to maximize our time at more distant natural areas. We sometimes take a brief rest during the afternoon, if bird activity slows. Owling trips will usually be offered on a few evenings during each tour.

The bird watching skills of our tour participants vary greatly. However, most participants have their own binoculars and know how to observe birds with them. If you have never watched birds or do not have binoculars, please contact us for some suggestions on preparing for your tour.

Tour Registration:
To register for a tour, please complete our Registration Form and return it, along with a deposit of $500 per person (check or money order in U.S. dollars). Telephoned or Emailed reservations are accepted (see our Contact Us page). The appropriate deposit and completed Registration Form must then be received within the following ten days.

Tour packets (including a bill for the balance of the tour fee) will be mailed to each participant about four months before the tour departure date. These packets will include clothing recommendations and other final tour details or information. Payment of the full tour fee is due 90 days prior to the tour departure date.

Travel Insurance:
Travel insurance information is available through most authorized travel agents. You may want to consider purchasing travel insurance, if you are concerned about possibly having to cancel your participation on a tour (after you have registered), because of health-related reasons. Travel insurance policies come with numerous requirements and stipulations. We recommend that you investigate this optional insurance, prior to registering for a tour.

Smoking Policy:
Smoking is not permitted at any time on our tours. This is a zero-tolerance policy.

Cancellation and Refund Policies:
Refunds for tours are made according to the following schedule: if cancellation notice is received more than 90 days before the tour departure date, the deposit, less $250, and any payments are refundable. If cancellation notice is received between 90 and 60 days before the tour departure date, the deposit is not refundable, but any payments covering the balance of the tour fee will be refunded. If cancellation notice is received fewer than 60 days before the tour departure date, the cancellation charge will be 100% of the full tour fee. No refund will be made for any unused portion of a tour.

We reserve the right to cancel any tour prior to departure. In case of cancellation, refund of all deposits and payments will constitute full settlement to the participant.

Responsibility:
Kingfisher Bird Tours acts only as an agent for the passenger in all matters pertaining to tour accommodations and transportation (whether by motor car, motor coach, railroad, boat, or airplane), and assumes no liability for injury, loss, damage, accident, or inconvenience caused by defect in any vehicle or for any reasons whatsoever, including the acts or defaults of any company or individual engaged in conveying the passenger or in carrying out the schedule of the tour.

Kingfisher Bird Tours accepts no responsibility for any additional expenses or inconvenience caused by changes or delays in airline or other transportation services, sickness, strike, weather, or other causes. Tour fees provide for arrangements only for the dates and times stated in the detailed itineraries. We reserve the right to make any change in itineraries if deemed necessary or caused by weather, changes or delays in transportation services, or other causes.

Kingfisher Bird Tours reserves the right to decline to accept or to retain any person as a participant of any tour. The completion of a tour registration form by the participant shall be deemed to be consent for the above Responsibility clause.