Unforgettable views and sounds. Would highly recommend even for amateur birders.
Only Birdwatching Company On Maui
Explore a Bird Lovers Paradise
Customize Your Full-Day Maui Birding Tour
Discover Maui’s Diverse & Unique Birdlife
Join us inside Haleakala National Park for this exclusive tour for all the birders, bird lovers, and other wildlife enthusiasts. This tour is perfect for those who want to discover Maui’s unique species and hopefully add a few “lifers” to their eBird list, as well as for anyone who wants to enjoy being outdoors, learn about Maui’s birds and visit the various ecosystems in which they thrive. A checklist will be provided for all birds living on Maui, including their Hawaiian names, and you can borrow our binoculars if you didn’t bring your own. Birding in Hawaii doesn’t get any better than this!
Trip Details
Trip Details
Price
- $945 for 1-2 pax
- $195 per additional passenger
Included
- Entrance fees to Haleakala National Park ($15pp)
- Water, juices & soda, hot beverages, snacks
- Rain ponchos/umbrellas
- Hiking poles
- Binoculars
- First aid kit
- Reef-safe sunscreen
- Eco-friendly insect repellent
Departure time
8 am
Meeting point
- We’ll pick you up from your hotel, cruise ship harbor, airport, or meet you at a park & ride
- Ask for details/select your pick-up option in the booking form
- Pick-up fee applies for West side locations
Season availability
Our birding tours are available all year round!
Weekly availability
Monday to Friday
Duration
8 hours
Group size
1-8 people
What to bring
- Layered & warm clothes
- Jacket
- Comfortable walking shoes
- Hat
- Sunglasses
- Your own binoculars or scope
- Phone/camera
Physical Requirements
While this tour can be customized to fit your physical abilities and can be very mellow, guests still must be able to enter and exit the vehicle unassisted. Please contact us for details.
Note
- Binocular use is available at no extra charge. Hiking poles are available.
- Please note: It is extremely important to ensure that all shoes and gear are free of potential debris from the Big Island & Kauai in attempts to help stop the spread of the rapid Ohia death fungus that is killing Ohia Lehua trees.
- Due to the fact our native honeycreepers have been decimated by avian malaria, we have to drive to 7,000 ft elevation to find them. We also drive to the summit of Haleakala for a chance at finding Nene, Pueo, and Chukars (and breathtaking views too!) We do our best to spend as much time as possible at the viewing spots, however, be aware that we have to do a fair amount of driving on this tour.
- Temperatures at Haleakala can be 20-40 degrees cooler than sea level, and the weather is unpredictable, so we recommend bringing a rain jacket and a hoodie.
Highlights
Find our endemic honeycreepers—I’iwi, Apapane, Amakihi, and Alauahio—at Hosmer's Grove Nature Trail
Drive up to the 10,023 summit Pu'u 'ula'ula or the Red Hill observation point
Walk around the native and alien-looking silversword endemic plants
Catch sightings of the native Hawaiian birds such as the Nene, Pueo, as well as the exotic Chukar
Find endemic birds on the beautiful Hosmer's Grove Nature Trail
Pay a visit to the Kealia National Wildlife Refuge for shore birds and migrants
Discover colorful exotic, introduced, and invasive birds, and learn about their role in Hawaiian ecosystems
What You'll Do
On this tour, we start with visiting the summit of Haleakala National Park in search of the endemic Pueo (Hawaiian Short-eared Owl), the Nene (Hawaiian Goose), and the Chukar. We’ll make our way above the clouds and marvel at the amazing views into the “crater.”
At Hosmer’s Grove, we spend a while looking at our endemic ‘Apapane, ‘I’iwi, ‘Amakihi, and if we’re lucky the ‘Alauahio (Maui Creeper), as well as other non-native birds that live in the park, such as the Red-Billed Leiothrix, the Chinese Hwamei, the Ring-Necked Pheasant, and the European Skylark.
After a picnic lunch in the park, we head to the Kealia National Wildlife Refuge to find shorebirds and migrants. Local residents include the Black-crown Night Heron, Hawaiian Coots, the elegant Hawaiian Stilts, and various species of ducks. Depending on the season and our luck, we might find Kolea (Pacific Golden Plover) Wandering Tattlers, White-faced Ibis, Sandpipers, Long-billed Dowitcher, Northern Shovelers, and others.
We will provide a checklist so you can keep track of your progress. On any given day, we can find a total of between 18 and 32 species–although this would include the ubiquitous Common Mynah and Cattle Egret!
Enjoy complimentary juices, fruits, snacks, and a full picnic lunch while learning about the ecology, history, myths, and legends of Maui.
All levels of birding enthusiasm welcome–from hardcore listers to first-timers!
See What Our Previous Guests Say
I took the bird watching tour with Explore Maui and it was excellent! Our guide Wendy had a wealth of knowledge not just on birds but on all the ecology and Hawaiian history. It was comfortable and just a delight!
We had a great time bird-watching on Haleakala with this guided tour. This was our first ever birding experience and we were not disappointed.
We did a private birding tour with Wendy, who was an enthusiastic guide, very knowledgeable regarding Hawaiian birds, plants, geology and culture.
She took us to several birding sites from mountain to forest to shore. We were able to see 31 species thanks to her, but the best part was being in parts of Maui…
This was exactly the birding experience we were hoping for. I’m the birder and my husband is a photographer. We identified 24 species including the beautiful ‘Apapane and ‘Amakihi.
Our preferred date was sold out, but Delphine offered us a private tour that took us to the prime birding spots. We saw a lot of the native and non-native species…
