Wildlife holidays in Lesbos
Tell me about Lesbos …
Lesbos lies in the Aegean Sea, just a few kilometres from the coast of Turkey.
Third largest of the Greek islands, it has a rugged mountainous interior and a magnificent coastline which has largely escaped the ravages of mass tourism.
A major source of revenue for the island is the production of high quality olive oil.
Our Lesbos specialist recommends...
"Our ‘Lesbos’ tour is a relaxing 8-day birdwatching holiday to this beautiful Greek island. This is one of the best places in Europe to see the spring migrants. It is definitely a worthy short-haul destination."
Dan FreeOperations Manager
What’s special about the wildlife?
The island is perfectly situated as a stopover for migrant birds heading north from Africa, and there are few better places in Europe to observe the ebb and flow of spring migration. Lesbos also boasts an impressive list of breeding bird species.
Naturetrek Tour to Lesbos
We offer a 10-day bird watching holiday to this beautiful Greek island, regarded by many as one of the best places in Europe to observe spring migration.
What birds might I see?
- We’ll inspect pools, marshes and saltpans around Skalla Kallonis for passage migrants such as herons, waders & terns
- Kruper’s Nuthatch & Cinereous Bunting are two of the rarer breeding birds we’ll look for
- Black-winged Stilts, Collared Pratincoles, Long-legged Buzzard & Masked Shrikes are a few of the species we may find
- We’ll also hope to add some vagrants, many of Central Asian origin, to our lists: Lanner, Spur-winged Plover, Great Snipe & Citrine Wagtail have been seen in recent years
WHAT YOU'VE BEEN SAYING ABOUT OUR Lesbos HOLIDAYS
We have just returned from a trip to Lesbos and I would like to thank everyone involved for a very sucessful holiday. I felt I needed to write especially to commend the leaders for this trip - Mike Hodgson and Reg Thorpe. They were exemplary in their bird locating and identification skills as might be expected on such a holiday but way and above that, their ability to draw the group together was excellent. They were especially kind and helpful to my family who represented the oldest and the youngest members of the group... I cannot praise them and their welcoming and inclusive attitude highly enough.
Lesbos in mid-April is as close to birding heaven as Im likely to get, but its worth separating the ingredients that made this such a special trip for me... Another contributing factor was the geography of the island with the comfortable distances to and from the various sites, enabling us to be based at one hotel throughout. Ive now been on six holidays of this type...and I think the one particular feature of this trip that stood out was the qualities of the two leaders. Profound ornithological knowledge one takes for granted...The level of banter, always good-natured, was at just the right level, nothing was too much trouble, patiently getting the last person onto a difficult-to-see bird. They clearly put a lot of energy into everything they did, not least behind the scenes, while making the whole progress of the tour smooth and seemingly effortless... So full marks to them and Naturetrek for an exceptional and memorable trip. Its worth mentioning that both leaders driving was as excellent and reassuring as one could wish, particularly necessary on the unmade and sometimes precipitous mountain roads.
A wonderful trip - our leaders were superb and worked hard to meet everyones needs. Very good company too.