My first visit to this region of Spain
Exploring Extremadura
I originally booked a photography tour with Wild Aperture to photograph wild Iberian lynx, flying into Madrid as the most practical gateway. As I’d never been to this part of Spain before, it felt wasteful not to linger, so I added a full week in Extremadura, with a few days in Madrid at the end. The lynx session deserves its own post; this one is about birds, landscapes, and learning my way around a remarkable region.
The region is very sparsely populated, and though a lot of the land is cultivated, it isn’t at all intensive and this allows nature the space to flourish. The roads are quiet and you’ll find that the small roads in remote areas are not surfaced.
Finding my way around the best birding spots
Visiting a new region as a wildlife photographer is both thrilling and faintly overwhelming. There is so much to discover, and two obvious approaches: book a structured package with one of the many specialist tour companies now operating across Europe, or travel independently with as much preparation as possible.
For this part of my trip, I chose the latter. Preparation proved easier than expected thanks to the excellent Crossbill Guides, which publish a dedicated volume on Extremadura. It quickly became my constant companion, invaluable not just for species information but for understanding habitats, access, and the quiet logic of the landscape.
Extremadura as a nature tourist
Leaving Madrid in a hire car was not entirely frictionless. Google Maps occasionally lagged behind reality and I missed a couple of junctions, but once clear of the rush-hour traffic the experience changed rapidly. The motorway heading west was calm, then almost empty, and the sense of space grew with every kilometre.
This gradual thinning of traffic felt like a prelude to Extremadura itself: big skies, open land, and an absence of hurry. From a nature photographer’s perspective, that matters. You are not fighting crowds, noise, or time pressure, and that alone makes the region unusually generous.
I based myself in Trujillo which is a delightful town, small and easy to explore on foot, and it still has a life outside of tourism. English isn’t widely spoken so be prepared to make the effort to learn some phrases and use Google Translate! In November the town was especially quiet, few tourists and they were mainly Spanish; in fact it wa three days before I heard any English!
The highlight amongst many: Griffon vultures at Salto del Gitano
If there was one moment that properly crystallised Extremadura for me, it was standing at Salto del Gitano in Monfragüe National Park, photographing griffon vultures at eye level. This is one of those rare places where scale and proximity collide: a sheer rock face dropping away beneath you, thermals rising, and vast birds sliding past with barely a flick of a wing.
Photographically, it is almost disarming. The temptation is to overshoot — long lenses, frantic bursts (though I did of coure) — but the real reward comes from slowing down and watching the patterns. Birds peeling away from the cliff, others materialising out of the valley below, the constant exchange between gravity and lift. At times they passed so close that framing became the challenge, not reach.
What struck me most was the lack of drama in the birds themselves. No alarm, no tension. They simply were, moving through air they clearly understood far better than I ever will. It was one of those experiences that quietly recalibrates how you think about wildlife photography.
How to plan your own trip to Extremadura
Extremadura rewards photographers and nature lovers who are willing to slow down. Base yourself near good habitat rather than trying to cover too much ground, learn the daily rhythms of the birds and wildlife, and accept that some of the best moments happen between planned destinations – this was exactly the case with finding the vultures on a carcass. A reliable field guide, offline maps, and an early start each day will take you a very long way here.
