Hotels often have spacious, attractive, well-managed and healthy gardens and grounds surrounding them. These grounds act as natural sanctuaries for wildlife, including bird species, of which there are approximately 11,000 across the planet, according to BirdLife International, a database of global species and subspecies.
Birding also is a sizable generator of income for the hotel, hospitality and tourism industries.
Grand View Research has reported the “global birdwatching tourism market size [is] estimated at $62.73 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 6.2% from 2024 to 2030.” It added the market “is expected to reach $95.22 billion by 2030.”
How do I know this? Because I've been an avid birder since age 9 (yes, many of us prefer the term "birder" to "birdwatcher"). Birders spend big and travel far to catch elusive sightings. And often those journeys start from the hotel-room balcony.
Here are just a few bird species I've personally seen in hotel grounds and gardens around the world. I give you Latin names to be the most precise, since often the same species are known by different common names around the world.
So as you travel this year and walk around your own hotels, I encourage you to keep your eyes and ears open. If you spot anything good, email me at tbaker@hotelnewsnow.com.
1. Anna’s hummingbird
Latin name: Calypte anna; where I saw it: Fairmont San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
I spotted this bird in the tiny front garden of this Nob Hill, San Francisco, hotel. This hummingbird is part of a family of species that weigh almost nothing yet might migrate vast distances. This species tends to stay put, though, but they are distributed up the West Coast of North America from Baja California up through Canada. Close to being in disbelief, I once saw one while on a guided tour of the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, Alaska.
2. Brown-breasted flycatcher
Latin name: Muscicapa muttui; where I saw it: Ahaspokuna Resort, Sabaragamuva, Sri Lanka
Ahaspokuna, measuring 2,260 acres, is a remote, luxury camp with three tented bungalows perched on high stilts in the jungle of Sri Lanka, not far from Udawalawe National Park and Dahaiyagala Wildlife Sanctuary. Guests will be greeted by staff who suddenly emerge from the trees by the side of the road, the taxi drivers knowing where to stop in, seemingly, the middle of nowhere. At the end of a 20-minute walk along a trail, the camp in a bluff of land emerges to reveal a central dining and relaxation area open to the sides and three lodging units. That's where I saw this not-so-colorful but charming flycatcher species almost at one arm’s length from an armchair. It was mesmerizing to hear it performing its song so close to the bungalow.
3. Double-banded courser
Latin name: Rhinoptilus africanus; where I saw it: Okaukuejo Resort, Etosha, Namibia
Coursers are birds of dry, sandy scrub and often not easy to find such is their camouflage. So it was a joy to repeatedly see one hunting for prey in the grounds of the Okaukuejo Resort, which sits at the very end of the main road that comes from Windhoek, Namibia’s capital, to Etosha National Park. That park is one of the most important wildlife sanctuaries in all of Africa and provides opportunity to see lion, zebra, giraffe, African elephant and two species of rhino, as well as many bird species. The resort’s accommodation options vary from camping and recreational-vehicle pitches to rooms to thatched bungalows overlooking its famed water hole.
4. Golden plover
Latin name: Pluvialis apricaria; where I saw it: Radisson Blu 1919, Reykjavik, Iceland
This species of plover is a winter visitor when it is seen in most parts of mainland Europe and the U.K. But in Iceland, even viewable from a harborside hotel room, they will be in their stunning breeding plumage, from which it is evident to see how it got its name. Stretches of water in Iceland not directly exposed to the full breadth of the Atlantic Ocean are welcome spots of respite for species in their finest summer colors, species such as Long-tailed duck; Long-tailed skua, and Red-necked phalarope.
5. Goshawk
Latin name: Accipiter gentilis; where I saw it: Pestana Berlin Tiergarten, Germany
This raptor species is very hard to see in the U.K., so it was with much pleasure that I spotted this during the International Hotel Investment Forum from right behind the Pestana Berlin, which to one side and behind is bordered by the Tiergarten park and to the other side by a canal and the InterContinental Hotel Berlin.
6. Hume’s wheatear
Latin name: Oenanthe albonigra; where I saw it: Mercure Grand Jebel Hafeet Al Ain, Jebel Hafeet, United Arab Emirates
Accor's Mercure Grand Jebel Hafeet Al Ain is halfway up a huge sandstone mountain, very close to the border of Oman. Rare birds such as Egyptian vulture soar in large circles over the lobby, but a closer look can reveal harder-to-pinpoint species such as Hume’s wheatear, which typically will be seen skittering over rocks and sandy slopes or alighting on an exposed but difficult to reach cliff rock to start seeking attention.
7. Lilac-breasted roller
Latin name: Coracias caudatus; where I saw it: Otjisazu Resort, Okahandja, Namibia
“Wow” is the expression most often heard when a guest espies this spectacular species, which, truth be told, does come from a family spotting sensational coloring and patterns. The Lilac-breasted roller would not be miscast in any pageant — with a white supercilium and feathers of pink, orange, fuchsia and two shades of blue. That their behavior is to flit from an exposed branch, pick off an insect and return to the same branch merely lends action to the celebration of its gorgeous palette. This species can be seen in most parts of Southern and Eastern Africa, where it is not the only roller species vying for attention.
8. Red-backed flameback
Latin name: Dinopium psarodes; where I saw it: Little Tamarind, Tangalle, Sri Lanka
This woodpecker is endemic to Sri Lanka — that is, it is found nowhere else on the planet. Actually, it is endemic to the southern half of the Indian Ocean island. This one came to the tree right below the small hotel’s dining area. Every morning as I ate hoppers — a Sri Lanka specialty that resembles a pancake wrap and is served with egg, coconut, dhal and other local ingredients — it would fly and gave us diners good company.
9. Tacazze sunbird
Latin name: Nectarinia tacazze; where I saw it: Seven Olives Hotel, Lalibela, Ethiopia
The Seven Olives, at least when I was there, would not pass many hotel firms’ brand standards testing, but what it lacks in that regard it makes up in its doubling as a nature reserve of sorts. Nestled in the middle of the small town of Lalibela, famed for the sunken churches of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the hotel grounds thrive with a galore of species, including the Tacazze sunbird, which comes from a family that is referred to as the Old World’s equivalent of the New World’s hummingbird family, and a hint of that is given in the Latin name of its genus, Nectarinia.
10. Yellow-headed caracara
Latin name: Daptrius chimachima; where I saw it: Gamboa Rainforest Resort, Gamboa, Panama
The Gamboa Rainforest Resort sits on Panama’s Chagres River, the sole source of rainforest water for the mighty, world-famous Panama Canal. From the resort, guests occasionally get a view of a huge Panamax cargo ship seemingly floating through the trees. That the Chagres has one of the most important roles in international business and thus is fiercely protected is excellent news for nature, including raptors such as the Yellow-headed caracara, a species confined to Central and South America and parts of the Caribbean. They often can be seen sitting proud on the tops of cacti at the edge of the resort’s grounds.
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