I have made two visits to Madagascar, one in 2005 and then again in 2012. Both tours were organised by Tropical Birding. The tour in 2005 was a two-week trip taking in the classic core locations of Ifaty, Zombitse, Ranomafana and Andasibe-Mantadia. The tour in 2012 was for a whole month. We started by visiting some unusual locations in the west of the island, namely Kirindy and Tsingy de Bemaraha, which are not usually visited by birders. We were rewarded with great views of some birds which are not usually seen well on the usual birding itinerary like Madagascar Pratincole and Madagascar Fish Eagle. We then did the next two weeks as before and finished off with a week in the northwest around Mahajanga and Ankarafantsika.
Whilst the primary interest of these trips was the birds, the other wildlife in the form of lemurs, reptiles and plants were also amazing and sometimes quite spectacular. On the 2012 tour, we encountered 33 different species of lemur as well as unbelievable views of a mating pair of Fosa in a big tree in the Mantadia reserve.
Note - the name Andasibe has been used throughout these galleries for the area formerly called Périnet since the local Malagasy name is now preferred to the former colonial French name.