Galapagos or Amazon? Choose your ultimate birdwatching adventure here

Both are meccas for twitchers, but which of these once-in-a-lifetime destinations is first on your wish list? Our experts help you decide.

By Amy Cooper

Mal will try to convince you he's cock of the rock when it comes to South American birding. But toucan play at that game. Although the Amazon's enormous, the Galapagos Islands top the pecking order for outrageous avian entertainment. Their singing, dancing, puffing, preening, beautifully bizarre parade of flamboyant feathered showstoppers is nature's Vegas. Top of the bill: the blue-footed booby. A triple-threat of specific but spectacular skills, this avian extrovert can be seen - depending on the season - flashing his electric blue feet in a courtship can-can, hurtling from great heights into the sea at more than 90kph or creating a nest by pooping in a circle all day long. The booby prize: ridiculously photogenic fluffy booby babies.

Boobies, both blue and red-footed, are among the Galapagos's 174 bird species, 26 of which are endemic, 17 globally threatened and all extraordinary. Thanks to an isolated location about 1000km west of continental Ecuador and spread over 45,000sqkm of eastern Pacific Ocean, the 19 islands are a living laboratory of one-off creatures uniquely tweaked to suit their surroundings.

Charles Darwin formed his theory of evolution around the 13 species of variously adapted Galapagos finches. The Galapagos penguin has morphed to pant like a dog to beat the heat. The wings of the world's only flightless cormorant have grown fin-like, replacing airborne with amphibious abilities. Predator-free, Galapagos birds are fearless exhibitionists. From the waved albatross's beak-clacking, head-bobbing choreography to the frigatebird drumming on his red throat balloon, and that brilliant booby boogie, you'll witness their mating rituals so intimately you'll feel like a bird third wheel.

The largest island, Isabela, makes for a beaut birding base, with azure waters where you can snorkel with the penguins, and trails across lunar-looking lava fields to flamingo-filled lagoons. Genovesa, nicknamed "bird island", shelters huge seabird colonies, with hundreds of boobies, terns, gulls, storm petrels and tropic birds flocking around you. Just click to capture several species in a single, stunning frame. Tweet dreams are made of this.

Accessibility is top-flight. You can take Galapagos cruises with birdwatching specialists or fly into the islands from Ecuador and hop between them on speedboat ferries. All you really need to do is sit back in your front-row seat and watch the birdy, no binoculars required (although at such close range, you might need your reading glasses). Or alternatively you could be bushwhacking with Mal through the jungle, where patience, a telescopic lens and vats of insect repellent might eventually reward you with a fleeting glimpse of an eagle's tail feather.

Go to the Galapagos - it's the natural selection.

By Mal Chenu

Some people find bird watching an impenetrable ornithological obscurity, like whether the chicken or the egg came first, or why woodpeckers don't get headaches.

When they crane, birders can contract warbler neck, a painful affliction caused by looking at treetops with binoculars for extended periods. But before you sneer, remember these people are staring up at real life, not down at their phones.

Dedicated twitchers flock together. They are a different breed - enthusiastic, adventurous and fearless when it comes to ticking off a species or getting a photo. Fanatical might be more accurate, as I witnessed on a small boat in the Top End. When our guide pointed out some rare, colourful winged beast in a tree, the dedicated birders all rushed to one side of the tinny for a gawk, nearly tipping us all into the river. It was a dangerous moment but they had no egrets. Apparently, the risk of becoming a croc snack was worth the thrill of snatching a quick, distant glimpse of a Purple-Crowned Fairy Wren.