Overland Birding Mongolia

Day 1|Arrive in Ulaanbaatar, Transfer to Gun Galuut NR — Opening Meadows

Drive 2 hrs

From the airport straight to the crane meadows of Gun Galuut for a first Mongolian evening — white-naped cranes bugling as the light drops.

Day 2|Gun Galuut Nature Reserve — Wetlands and Steppe

A full day on the reserve: cranes, swan geese, shorebird flats and steppe margins — the gentle overture before the wild west.

Day 3|Terelj National Park — Taiga Interlude

Drive 2 hrs

Terelj's granite and larch for azure tit, buntings and woodpeckers, then an early night — tomorrow the expedition truly begins.

Day 4|Fly Bayankhongor, Transfer to Khukh Lake — Into the Interior

Fly 1 hr, then drive 3–4 hrs

Fly to Bayankhongor and drive up into the Khangai to Khukh Lake, where a tented camp waits by the water. Swans and bar-headed geese greet the arrival.

Day 5|Khukh Lake — High Steppe Waters

A full lake day: breeding wildfowl, citrine wagtails, hill pigeons on the crags, and raptors trading along the ridgelines.

Day 6|Otgontenger — The Sacred Mountain

Drive 3–4 hrs

West beneath Otgontenger, the Khangai's holiest summit — and birding's reason to come: the alpine meadows that hold Hodgson's bushchat. The first evening scan begins immediately.

Day 7|Uliastai — Bushchat Morning, Town Night

Drive 3–4 hrs

Dawn in the bushchat meadows — the males sing from willow tops in June — plus Altai snowcock high above. Then down to historic Uliastai for a hotel night and resupply.

Day 8|Bulnai Mountains — The Northern Forests

Drive 2–3 hrs

Climb into the Bulnai range, where larch taiga meets mountain steppe. Black grouse lek at the edges; the forest interior promises capercaillie and, after dark, owls.

Day 9|Bulnai Mountains — Forest Birding Deep

A full day working the woods and clearings — woodpeckers, nutcrackers, pine buntings — with red deer and the tracks of lynx as reminders of the forest's other lives.

Day 10|Bayan Lake — To the Great Lakes

Drive 3–4 hrs

Down from the mountains and west to Bayan Lake's reed world. Evening flights of pelicans possible, and the reeds seething with warblers.

Day 11|Bayan Lake — Reedbed Riches

White-headed duck, ferruginous duck and black-necked grebe on the open water; paddyfield and Blyth's reed warblers in song. One of the west's finest wetland days.

Day 12|Ulaangom & Uvs Lake — The UNESCO Basin

Drive 2–3 hrs

North to Ulaangom and the shore of Uvs Lake — Pallas's gulls, spoonbills, and dune-steppe larks in one sweep of the glass. Hotel comforts by night.

Day 13|Ulaangom & Uvs Lake — Around the Inland Sea

A second basin day for the corners the first missed — brackish pools, sandgrouse flights at the springs, and steppe eagles on the thermals.

Day 14|Altai Mountains — The Final Range

Drive 3–4 hrs

Climb west into the high Altai for the journey's summit chapter: snowcock country, wallcreeper walls and lammergeier skies.

Day 15|Altai Mountains — High Finale

A full alpine day — güldenstädt's redstart, brown accentor, and the mountain's raptor parade — before the long descent begins.

Day 16|Ulaanbaatar via Ulaangom — The Flight Back

Drive 3–4 hrs, then fly 2 hrs

Drive to Ulaangom and fly east to Ulaanbaatar for the final list session and farewell dinner.

Day 17|Fly Home — Departure

Airport transfer, 1 hr

Breakfast and transfer — seventeen days, a transect of half a continent.