Calidris Birdsafaries
Calidris Birdsafaries
5
12:00 AM - 11:59 PM
Monday
12:00 AM - 11:59 PM
Tuesday
12:00 AM - 11:59 PM
Wednesday
12:00 AM - 11:59 PM
Thursday
12:00 AM - 11:59 PM
Friday
12:00 AM - 11:59 PM
Saturday
12:00 AM - 11:59 PM
Sunday
12:00 AM - 11:59 PM
About
Bird safari in a bird safari bus (9-seater). The bird guide, Klaas de Jong, is a well-known birdwatcher, eager to show you the best and most beautiful birds on the island. By bird safari bus you will visit a few different nature areas and meet dozens of different birds, which Klaas will identify and tell stories about. You will be picked up from your hotel/bungalow, and brought back after the tour. A half day tour offers 3 hours of 'nature entertainment' and a full day tour offers 7 hours with a luxurious local lunch included.
Texel, The Netherlands

Awards
Travellers' Choice
2023

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(2 reviews)

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Popular mentions

5.0
5.0 of 5 bubbles528 reviews
Excellent
464
Very good
59
Average
5
Poor
0
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0

Will d
1 contribution
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2024 • Solo
Excellent bird watching tour of Texel and local birding spots. Klaas was very knowledgeable and happy to help identify every bird. As a solo English birder I felt at home with him and the other Dutch customers. Would definitely recommend and like to return in summer.
Written 12 March 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

berber151
Amsterdam, The Netherlands2 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Sept 2023 • Friends
We enojoyed a half day bird safari with Klaas de Jong on Texel. Klaas made the safari a success for both the ornithological novices as well as for the more experienced twitchers. We saw many beautiful and some exceptional birds and Klaas provided us with useful identification tips .
We also learned some amusing facts about the origin of several dutch and english bird names.
I highly recommend his tours for anyone interested in nature and wildlife!
Written 26 September 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Emily M
2 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jun 2023 • Couples
This was a very enjoyable way to spend a morning. Klaas speaks perfect English and conducted a bi-lingual tour for us. We came to this tour as birding novices and learned a lot! Highly recommend.
Written 19 June 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

JCTfromDEN
Denver, CO153 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
May 2023
We did two birding tours with Calidris on consecutive days, one a half-day tour and the other a full day. We would recommend this company to any birding tourist who visits Texel.

The tours are led by Klaas de Jong. He brings many strengths to these tours. He is extremely knowledgable, very skilled in bird ID by both sight and sound, and adept at getting a scope on the most interesting birds quickly. Klass clearly enjoys leading these tours. His passion is contagious to the guests on the tours.

On the full-day tour you visit all parts of the island, including both coastal and inland. Our half-day tour stuck to the southern end of the island, but since Klaas picks guests up at wherever they are staying, that might be different if the guests on another tour were staying on the north side instead of on the south side where we were staying.

On our tours the #1 target bird was a rare African Bee-eater. This species is rarely found as far north at Texel, but one had been reported. Over our two days with Klaas he made three tries to find it, succeeding on the third try. Through his many connections on the island, he knew where to go and when to go there. He found other rare species for us as well.

After each tour, Klaas provided a written recap to each guest, including photos of several of the birds seen on the tour. This was a nice follow-up touch.

As a former officer of the National Audubon Society, I've been on many birding tours, and even led one in The Netherlands back in 2007, so I know what the key ingredients of a successful tour are. My only reservation about Klaas's tours is that he does not begin with an overview of where the tour is going and what it is trying to see on the tour. This may be because on our tours two or three different languages were spoken among the guests. Most guests were Dutch, but there were some Germans, and we two Americans. Klaas is fluent in all three languages, but it's difficult to do an overview presentation in three different languages. I would recommend that he prepare a brief written overview in each language and distribute the overviews at the beginning of the trip. These can be forms that do not require frequent editing.

This was my only reservation about these tours. Believe me, if we come back to Texel, we will sign up with Calidris again.
Written 16 May 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Isabelle T
1 contribution
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Sept 2022
We are a group of ecologists from Singapore who engaged Klaas for a bird tour in Texel. Klaas has professional guiding skills with exceptional local knowledge on bird life and the ecology of Texel. We enjoyed the conversations with him and shared his enthusiasm for the biodiversity of the island. Also, the lunch was lovely and coffee and tea was provided while we were birding. We definitely recommend his bird tours!
Written 15 September 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

mboerma
Amsterdam, The Netherlands88 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2021 • Couples
We did two Bird Safaris with Klaas de Jong. We liked the first one so much that we booked another the week after. Klaas is very knowledgeable about birds and many other animals and plants. The number of bird species on Texel is large, but you need the know where to find them, at what time of the year and at what time of the day. I think you can wake Klaas up in the middle of the night and he will be able to tell you where to go to find what.

Any one interested in birding or in nature in general should book a safari with Klaas. He has many options and is flexible to organize outings on request. He also will supply you with the best field lunch you will ever get on a bird trip.

Highly recommended.
Written 22 August 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

worldtravellerTom
Paterswolde, The Netherlands529 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2021
Rightly so #1 for activities. The bus picks you up at the place where you stay. The host, Klaas, is a very experienced bird watcher and remains enthusiastic for all participants. He brings some very good binoculars, so unless you are a specialist, no need to bring one of your own. Klaas will bring you to various places on the island, to watch normal and rare birds. Along the way he can tell something about the island and its history as well. A true host.

When i see a bird now, i watch it differently!

Also good follow up via email on what we had seen, what else we can do to support birding in Netherlands. Great!
Written 13 July 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

bouke925
5 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2020
This was our first guided bird watching tour, and we really enjoyed it. There are a lot of different birds to see, and Klaas knows all of them, and can answer all your questions about them. We learned a lot! He's also very friendly and you can tell he loves what he does. We went on the 3 hour trip, in which we passed around 6 different viewing locations.
Written 4 September 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

bieteut
bieteut42 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
May 2019 • Solo
This was my third time on a 'safari' with Klaas, second time in spring, and it fully met my expectations, namely: visit multiple sites on this beautiful island; see a variety of bird species; have an opportunity to learn more from an experienced and personable guide about said species; get great looks through a telescope; enjoy the company of other birders with varying levels of experience; and have some delightful surprises along the way.

I particularly enjoyed wonderful looks at a Northern Wheatear. The absolute highlight of this trip was the opportunity to observe 23 Eurasian Dotterel in a field relatively close to where we were parked.

I also appreciated Klaas' ability to handle some logistical challenges at the outset of this particular safari. The pick-up address for some guests wasn't entirely clear at first but he managed to get it sorted and soon enough we were all in the van and ready to start birding.

Whether you have lots of birding experience or none, whether you are a first-time visitor to Texel or know the island well, I highly recommend signing up for a tour with Klaas.
Written 5 June 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Susanne412
Sandton, South Africa1 653 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
May 2019 • Friends
We had a great trip with Klaas, had a lot of lifers for our european and our generell bird list. But it was not just birds his knowledge for nature is great too.
Written 19 May 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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CALIDRIS BIRDSAFARIES (Texel) - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go