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Wildlife Safaris in Hula Valley
A wetland valley in the Upper Galilee of northern Israel, on the Great Rift Valley flyway between Europe, Asia and Africa. The Agamon Hula lake park and the adjacent Hula Nature Reserve form one of the world's great bird-migration crossroads, where hundreds of millions of birds pass twice a year and tens of thousands of cranes overwinter.
Why here
The Hula Valley is one of the planet's premier birdwatching sites, named by BBC Wildlife among the world's top ten. It sits on the Great Rift Valley flyway, the aerial motorway linking European and Asian breeding grounds with African wintering grounds, and roughly 500 million birds of some 400 species funnel through the valley in each spring and autumn migration. The headline act is the common crane: tens of thousands, in some winters more than thirty thousand, gather on the fields of the Agamon Hula park from late autumn, and a feeding programme keeps them there through the cold months so the valley roars with their calls at dawn and dusk. Around them come great white pelicans, greater and lesser spotted eagles, storks, pygmy cormorants, herons and vast rafts of ducks. You watch from a covered tractor-drawn wagon that rolls into the flocks without spooking them, from mobile hides, or on foot and by bike along the park loop, and the sunrise crane season is a genuine wildlife spectacle. The Hula Valley Bird Festival each November marks the migration peak.
Best months
The great season is autumn through late winter, roughly October to March, with the crane spectacle at its fullest from November to February and a second wave on the spring passage in March. The dawn wagon tours, run before sunrise, are the finest way to be among the cranes as they wake, and demand advance booking. Winter mornings in the Galilee are cold and can be misty, so dress warmly for an early start. The valley is flat and easy, the park loop suitable for all fitness on foot or by bicycle. Bring binoculars, and a long lens if you photograph.
Getting there & around
The Hula Valley lies in the Upper Galilee, about 90 minutes to two hours by road from the Sea of Galilee towns and roughly three hours from Tel Aviv, best reached by car. The Agamon Hula park has a visitor centre, a bike and electric-cart rental, and a flat 8.5-kilometre loop; entry and the guided wagon tours are booked at the park, with the dawn tours needing reservation ahead. The separate Hula Nature Reserve nearby adds boardwalks and hides. Spring and autumn migration and the winter crane season are the times to come.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (2)
Agamon Hula
OrganizerAgamon Hula is the lake park at the centre of the Hula Valley, managed in partnership with KKL-JNF, and the main place to witness the valley's bird migration. It runs guided tours in covered tractor-drawn wagons that carry visitors into the crane and waterfowl flocks at dawn, alongside a flat 8.5-kilometre loop for walkers and cyclists. A winter feeding programme holds tens of thousands of common cranes on its fields from late autumn, making it one of the world's top birdwatching sites.
Israel Ornithological Center
ClubThe Israel Ornithological Center is the birding division of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, the country's largest birdwatching body and the local BirdLife International partner. It runs guided birding in the Hula Valley, including expert-led wagon and mobile-hide tours during the migration and crane seasons, and organises the annual Hula Valley Bird Festival each November at the peak of the autumn passage.