French wildlife - Birds
Britain is one of the leading contries for Ornithologists and bird enthusiasts, and so you will be delighted to know that France is full of wonderful bird species, along with stunning landscape, bird watching will go to another level. Although not as exotic as Spain or Greece, France has a lot to offer to the travelling birder, its central position in Western Europe means that there is a wide variety of habitats including the Guarrigues and Maquis of the Mediterranean coast, a choice of montane habitats, mature oak forests of central and eastern France. As Birding is still a connoisseur hobby in France, there are plenty of opportunities to find your own birds. But this also means that nature reserve are rare and not very user friendly (don't expect the sort of facilities you get at Minsmere).
If visiting France between September and March you will encounter the famous Chasseurs (Hunters). They are very numerous (1.5 million) and vociferous and in some area (Sud Ouest, Nord) can be extremely aggressive to what they call Les Ecologistes (anybody with an interest in Nature/Ecology/Conservation). But its still worth the trouble and the Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux (LPO) is doing a very good job of beginning to counter the influence of this noisy (& large) minority. Main areas of interest for the (British) birder in France: No need to go the best birding places to see some nice birds. Species like Black Redstart, Serin, Cirl Bunting are common in most of France... A few nice hedges and the chances are that Great Grey and Red Back shrikes will be present, a Poplar plantation should have a several pairs of Golden Orioles. France has the most forestation in Europe so you are never more that 50km from a decent sized Forest which, depending of the area, will hold Middle spotted, Grey-headed or Black Woodpecker... Birds of prey are common; on a drive across France over 10 species can be seen in a day from the motorway!