About The Bird I.D. Company
The Bird ID Company has been operating tours for over 15 years. We specialise in tours to Norfolk and neighbouring
Suffolk, which enables us to offer a wide range of dates and different tours across East Anglia. This regional
focus also means we can ensure that we have detailed knowledge of the sites we visit and the birds we are looking
for, and up-to-date information about the best places to look.
Group sizes are kept as small as possible, generally only up to 6, to make sure all the participants have the
best chance to see the birds. Particularly with our focus on getting more out of birdwatching and developing
new identification skills, we believe it is important to ensure that each member of the group has the maximum
opportunity both to observe the birds closely and ask questions of the leader.
Marcus Nash – Owner and Tour Leader
I was born and raised in Norfolk and started birdwatching here at the age of 8, which marked the start of a
lifelong passion for birds and wildlife. I studied Zoology at university and wrote my dissertation on Little
Egrets in the Camargue, France. After travelling extensively, birdwatching in various countries, I settled
in London to live and work for several years. During that period I still took every opportunity to indulge
my interest in birds, with regular trips all around the world and visits back to my home county whenever possible.
I made the decision to leave behind my career and move back to Norfolk permanently with my family in 2006, with a
view to turning my hobby into a profession. Over the last ten years, I have spent most of my time out in the
field, studying birds and their behaviour, investigating different aspects of bird identification, and enjoying
other wildlife. This has involved extensive travel around East Anglia, where I have developed a particular
interest in how the distribution of different species has changed since I was younger. I also play a very
active role in the birding community; amongst other things, I have just completed a five year term as a serving
member of the Norfolk Rarities Committee and I am a regular contributor to the Norfolk Bird Report.
I took over the running of the Bird ID Company in 2014, which is the perfect way to allow me to share my knowledge
and enthusiasm with others. Since then, I have been running the tours in the same format and just as successfully
as they have been run in the past.
Right, Marcus Nash. Owner and Tour Leader
The Birds
Below are some of the species which have been seen on the Bird ID Company tours over the last few years:
East Anglia specialities - Montagu's Harrier, Spoonbill, Stone Curlew, Common Crane, Bittern,
Shore Lark, Avocet, Barn Owl, Bearded Tit, Willow Tit, Pink-footed Geese, White-fronted Geese, Bean Geese,
Bewick's & Whooper Swans, Firecrest, Goshawk, Turtle Dove, Nightjar, Snow & Lapland Buntings, Marsh Harrier,
Hen Harrier, Merlin, Tree Pipit & Woodlark.
Scarce breeding, wintering & passage birds - Garganey, Scaup, Long-tailed Duck, Velvet
Scoter, Smew, Black-throated & Great Northern Divers, Red-necked, Slavonian & Black-necked Grebes, Sooty &
Balearic Shearwaters, Leach's Petrel, Honey Buzzard, Rough-legged Buzzard, Great White Egret, Dotterel,
Little & Temminck's Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Jack Snipe, Spotted Redshank, Red-necked &
Grey Phalaropes, Long-tailed & Pomarine Skuas, Sabine's Gull, Caspian Gull, Black Tern, Little Auk,
Long-eared Owl, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Waxwing, Water Pipit, Bluethroat, Ring Ouzel, Grasshopper &
Dartford Warblers, Great Grey & Red-backed Shrikes, Hawfinch & Crossbill.
Rarities - Lesser White-fronted, Snow & Ross's Geese, Black Brant, Green-winged Teal,
King Eider, Surf Scoter, Squacco Heron, Cattle Egret, Glossy Ibis, White-tailed Eagle, Northern Harrier,
Pallid Harrier, Red-footed Falcon, Collared & Black-winged Pratincoles, Black-winged Stilt, American
Golden Plover, Kentish Plover, Great Knot, Pectoral, Western, White-rumped & Buff-breasted Sandpipers,
Great Snipe, Lesser Yellowlegs, Wilson's Phalarope, Pallid & Alpine Swifts, Hoopoe, Wryneck, Red-rumped
Swallow, Short-toed Lark, Olive-backed Pipit, Citrine & Grey-headed Wagtails, Red-flanked Bluetail,
Isabelline, Pied & Desert Wheatear, Spectacled Warbler, Barred Warbler, Blyth's Reed Warbler,
Booted Warbler, Icterine Warbler, Western Bonelli's, Greenish, Arctic, Yellow-browed, Pallas's, Dusky &
Radde's Warblers, Penduline Tit, Alder, Collared & Red-breasted Flycatchers, Isabelline, Lesser Grey &
Woodchat Shrikes, Arctic Redpoll, Two-barred Crossbill and Trumpeter Finch.