Merlin Birding & Nature Tours

Merlin Birding & Nature Tours is the small Montana-based company of raptor biologist Steve Hoffman, who co-founded the Veracruz River of Raptors Project in 1991 and was the founding director of HawkWatch International. Its signature offering is an October Veracruz raptor migration tour built around peak counts of more than 200,000 hawks per day at the Pronatura Veracruz observation towers. The nine-day itinerary works the central Veracruz coast from Cardel and Chichicaxtle out to Cempoala wetlands, La Mancha biological station and the Cofre de Perote pine forests, putting clients on more than 260 species and using bilingual local guides such as Kashmir Wolf. Tours run small and emphasise direct support for the Pronatura monitoring program.