The dry forest of Ankarafantsika provided mega birds and mammals including Van Dam’s vanga, Madagascar fish eagle and jacana, white-breasted mesite, Schlegel’s asity, mongoose lemur or Coquerel’s sifaka.

Rainforest and vibrant town life merge in the village of Ranomafana: lemurs by the road, partridges in the outskirts and vangas in the village gardens bring nature into everyday life.

A fieldwork stay in this research station in the middle of Madagascar’s montane rainforest resulted in living among incredible endemics: sunbirds, vangas, tetrakas, cuckoo-rollers, lemurs, geckos, chameleons and more.

An unprecedented influx of juvenile red-footed falcons shifted their southbound migration through Western Europe. While autumn records are being broken, I managed to connect with one of these raptors in El Hondo.