We believe in travelling the world. Collecting lifelong memories. Visiting places, new and old. Standing in the middle of nowhere and watching as nature takes our breath away time and time again. But most importantly, birding!
We’ve been doing this whole “travel the world in search of birds” thing for a little while now. This website began in 2015 as a way to share our stories and trip logistics to inspire other independent birders to get out and go birding. We’ve now been to over 30 countries and have seen thousands of species.
You can find us on eBird @ rgallardy or melgallardy.
At the age of six Ross began birdwatching. His skills and ability to find and identify birds has improved over the years and has grown to include bird photography and audio sound recording. Ross has already surpassed seeing 7,000 species of the world’s birds and he is always looking forward to visiting another country to add more birds to his life list. Melissa hasn’t always been a birder (and still doesn’t claim to be one) but she grew up just loving to be outside so it wasn’t hard for Ross to get her into it! She claims that birding is simply hiking with binoculars. (But for not being a “birder” she is pretty darn serious about not missing a bird.)
In 2015 we spent six months travelling throughout Asia: visiting Japan, Thailand, and Cambodia, then road-tripping across the United States, and backpacking the Pacific countries of South America: Chile, Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. We’ve been documenting our adventures ever since and have added several more countries to the ever growing list of places we’ve been! In 2017 we decided to do it again and spent another six months travelling, where we spent four months in Indonesia (visiting a whole slew of islands), and then followed it up with two months in The Comoros, The Seychelles, Reunion, Madagascar and South Africa! In 2020 we decided to buy a Toyota Hilux and spend 10 months driving it around Africa, visiting 15 countries in the process!
We always get asked “but how do you have the time” or “how do you pay for such a trip” and to those questions the response is usually the same: because that’s what we prioritize. Any free time we can gather we save for a trip. Ross is the king of combining holiday vacation with personal time off to maximize the amount he can take off at once. We don’t spend a lot of money at home so we can save it for our trips! Also, we do try to make our trips as affordable as possible (hence the “budget” in budget birders). We prioritize our time and money so that we can continue to travel as much as possible!
In 2022 we welcomed our son, Roger, into our world. We have always said that when we decide to have children we want them to be a part of our lifestyle: we still want to travel as much as possible. When Roger was 6 months old we took him to Colorado and Montana on a three-week trip visiting sites like Yellowstone and Grand Tetons and when he was 9 months old we left for a four month long trip to Taiwan, Australia and Argentina.
We hope that by sharing our travel costs, research, and adventures this website is a great resource as you plan your own international birding trip. Be sure to check out the trip reports for logistics if you want to plan your own budget birding adventure!
“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” – John Muir