With its extensive protected areas and habitats, northern France has several bird species not found in Britain as well as many which are difficult to see on our shores – and all within a short drive of your ferry or the Channel Tunnel.

The birds are obvious as soon as you set foot on French soil, with Crested Larks and Zitting Cisticolas near the Calais Ferry terminal and many seabirds around the channel on the way in. And there is even better just minutes along the coast, with miles of dunes and marshes alive with birdsong as Savi and Melodious Warblers - at Platier do L’Oye or Guines Marsh - or good numbers of Bluethroat at the Etangs de Romelaere near St Omer.