10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 19, 2019

And here in Europe, they are the real deal, an indigenous species and not domesticated animals gone wild. These handsome finches breed in the far north of Europe and come here for the winter only. Annex II of the Bern Convention lists 45 of Beljarica’s bird species, with a further 91 species in Annex III.

Serbia 244

Serbia Otters Boars Hunters 244

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 12, 2023

The night temperatures in Belgrade, Serbia, were already below minus 10 Celsius / 14 degrees Fahrenheit for two weeks. Up to the mid-20th century, Pygmy Cormorant was a common breeding species of wetlands around Belgrade until most wetlands were drained and the birds were lost, at one moment – from the entire territory of Serbia.

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Protection Serbia 2004 Legislation 278

10,000 Birds

APRIL 11, 2019

Where to find shorebirds around Belgrade, Serbia? So far, 33 species have been eBirded in Serbia. Let me add that the only ever ringed Critically Endangered (yet, possibly extinct) Slender-billed Curlew was ringed in northern Serbia (Carska bara Ramsar site) in the 1970s. North: Pecena Slatina pond by the Baranda Village.

Serbia 151

Serbia New Jersey Europe Hunters 151

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2023

Before I was born, it used to be a rare breeding species in mountainous areas south of Belgrade, but became extinct after the 1960s due to intensive poisoning of wolves. There’s an eagle… a White-tailed Eagle , a relatively common and numerous breeding species of riparian forests along large water courses and fishponds.

Bulgaria 262

Bulgaria McDonalds Eagles Wolves 262

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

In Belgrade, Serbia, winter months offer surprisingly good birding possibilities. Other species expected in December include Velvet Scoter , the last flocks of Common Cranes , perhaps a Red-breasted Merganser , Long-tailed Duck or a Smew (if the winter gets cold), as well as the still missing Red-throated Diver.

Serbia 296

Serbia Woodpeckers Ducks Birds 296

10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2021

The adventure of the second European Breeding Bird Atlas, or EBBA2, was the topic of one of my first posts here at 10,000 Birds: In a warm Catalonian March, Barcelona is filled with sunlight and full of Rose-ringed and Monk Parakeets. Original artwork illustrates all species with a full account.

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Europe Denmark Breeding Russia 264

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 3, 2020

mi2 of the Danube backwaters in Belgrade, Serbia. This is an uncommon species here – only about a dozen birds overwinter in the country annually. Out of my total of 15 observations ever, this is only the third within Serbia (the rest were half in India, the other half in Greece). And I am in the southeast of Europe.

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Serbia Birds Cyprus Ducks 266

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2019

Some five years ago I was involved in a project of ecotourism evaluation of the river Danube in Serbia, which included the city of Belgrade, founded at the bank of this river. a British expat birder who was living in Belgrade, for a suggestion: “The top species is undoubtedly White-tailed Eagle. Hence, I asked my friend B.C.,

Serbia 249

Serbia Woodpeckers Albania Eagles 249

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2020

Part of the Labudovo okno Ramsar Wetland and protected within the Deliblato Sands Special Nature Reserve , this section of the Danube, downriver from Belgrade, Serbia, is unique for its wide shallows, before the river narrows downstream from the village of Ram. When to visit: best during winter and migration season, but also breeding season.

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Mali Serbia Eagles Turtles 264

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 24, 2015

Here is a joint media release: WWF, Decembar 11, 2015 – This December, 3,800 Pygmy Cormorants are wintering by the river Sava in Belgrade, Serbia, representing 2 percent of the global population and 5.4 “The Pygmy Cormorant is a strictly protected bird species in Serbia, as well as in the European Union. .

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Serbia Protection Europe 2007 180

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

Photo: This area holds 3 to 4 breeding pairs of White-tailed Eagles , which represents the biggest density per square mile anywhere in the country. Wigeons are only migrants and not a breeding species in Serbia and August is a bit too early for any longer distance duck movements. Photographed by Szekeres Levente.

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Serbia Eagles Protection Boars 164

10,000 Birds

JULY 29, 2021

The very best wetland birding around Belgrade, Serbia, is not to be found in the locally famous and tourist-promoted Obedska or Carska Bara Ramsar areas, but at Beljarica Backwaters and the fish farm triangle of Centa, Baranda and Sakule villages, in the Tamis River floodplain. mi, to the Vrbovski turnoff.

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Farming Fish Boars Birds 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2018

Turning off the asphalt, I enter the Deliblato Sands steppe, between the Danube and the Carpathian Mountains in the northeast of Serbia, where the first bird to greet me is a Northern Wheatear , followed by a Crested Lark. They do not build nests, but occupy old nests of Rooks and breed colonially among them. I must digress further.

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Serbia Eagles Falcons Breeders 122

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2015

Serbia has a large number of pigeon fanciers and a long history of lack of law enforcement in the field of wildlife crime ( Newsweek on poaching in the Balkans ). This time it is not in Serbia, but in Zurich, Switzerland, where this particular Serbian pigeon fancier / blogger lives. Painting (c) by Paschalis Dougalis.

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Switzerland Serbia Feral Falcons 192

10,000 Birds

JUNE 12, 2014

These days I am busy with something called the “avitourism product“ of Belgrade, Serbia. Defining Belgrade bird specialties is the hard part – there is no defined criterion, beside attractiveness which often comes from how uncommon some species is. Pygmy Cormorant – winter (it breeds in Serbia, but overwinters in Belgrade).

Serbia 175

Serbia Eagles Sparrows Falcons 175

10,000 Birds

MARCH 12, 2020

It has been a while since I wrote on where to watch birds (unbelievable, I know), and will now focus on the nature reserve of Deliblato Sands and the adjoining Labudovo okno Ramsar Wetland, about an hour east from Belgrade, Serbia. When to go: breeding and migration seasons (April to June and late August to mid-September).

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Europe Serbia Turtles Woodpeckers 224

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2018

During the final stages of the Pan-European bird-atlassing work last year, computer models of Serbian ranges for some 150 bird species were produced for the first time ever. New target species for the next spring field trip. The consequences were amusing. Cannot wait to see it published, but it will take a few more years.

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Serbia Breeders Turtles Breeding 101

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2020

First, 800 km of driving from Belgrade through Bulgaria to very NE corner of Greece and the Dadia Forest National Park with its 36 species of diurnal raptors, out of Europe’s 38. From there to the nearby Evros River Delta, at the very border with Turkey, with more easterly species such as the Spur-winged Plover.

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Greece Bulgaria Serbia 2000 230

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 16, 2014

While there are some two dozen birding spots in Belgrade, Serbia, that stand out, in this guideblog I will focus on the river Danube and its floodplain, inside the Important Bird Area “Confluence of the Sava and the Danube Rivers”. While regular in winter, Pygmy Cormorants do not breed in the vicinity and are absent in spring and summer.

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Serbia Ducks Birds Eagles 231

10,000 Birds

MARCH 26, 2020

LABUDOVO OKNO Ramsar Site and an Important Bird Area represents a section of the Danube floodplain downriver from Belgrade, Serbia, and situated in the south of the Deliblato Sands Special Nature Reserve. eBird list of the recorded species. Nature reserve since 2002. Dubovacki Rit; photos (3) by Slobodan Puzovic. Previous part 1/3.

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Turtles 2002 Serbia Eagles 167

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 3, 2019

eBird doesn’t offer such an option, so I used the second best: the species was observed in one month only. The next specialty is the Red-footed Falcon in the Deliblato Sands Nature Reserve in the east of Serbia: “Two European Rollers await us on the wires, while one Eurasian Hoopoe flies by. No, they weren’t in raspberry fields.)”.

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2018 Serbia Greece Falcons 117

10,000 Birds

JUNE 13, 2013

Serbia holds 13 per cent of the European breeding population of this “electrified” species which is not only Endangered in Europe but also listed as Globally Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Conservation Europe falcons Serbia' We were searching for the territories of Saker Falcons.

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Falcons Serbia 2007 Europe 222

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2015

This map shows the distribution of the World’s bird species, based on overlying the breeding and wintering ranges of all known species. Birding by canoe in Botswana brings 60 birds in two hours (I am not even talking of the Okavango, but the southeast of the country), while two hour paddling in Serbia brings half of that number.

Sri Lanka 257

Sri Lanka Botswana Africa Serbia 257

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 17, 2019

The other day I counted my favourite section of the Danube River, the wide and shallow Labudovo okno Ramsar site in Serbia. These globally threatened raptors breed from Ukraine eastward through Siberia and only a few come to overwinter here. The biggest count ever was less than 10 birds in the whole of Serbia.

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Geese Serbia Ukraine Estonia 143

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 17, 2013

Most perching birds have already left us sometime from late August and September; soaring birds do migrate over Serbia, but there is no known bottleneck site to observe them (it is believed that they follow the main river valleys to the east and south); while waterbirds will start arriving in a month or so. Birding city birds Europe Serbia'

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Serbia Europe Netherlands Eagles 224

10,000 Birds

APRIL 16, 2015

One Common Raven is disappearing towards its nest among the branches of the poplar plantation, only to reappear a few minutes later to give a good chase – aerial acrobatics included – to its first neighbour, the White-tailed Eagle which breeds in the vicinity. Birding Europe Mammals otters Serbia' kilometres / 0.7

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Otters Serbia Fish Mammals 175

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2014

Consequently, my first local patch becomes a largish Danube River floodzone opposite to Belgrade (Serbia) city centre (cover photo: April 1992). With about 110 recorded species, the Kozara becomes truly magical place when the Danube swells and reclaims what is rightfully his. Kozara backwaters. The Ada Huja riverbank.

Serbia 239

Serbia Stray Dog Botswana Protection 239

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2014

The night temperatures in Belgrade, Serbia, were already below minus 10 Celsius / 14 degrees Fahrenheit for two weeks. Up to the mid-20th century, Pygmy Cormorants were a common breeding species of wetlands around Belgrade… until the wetlands were drained and the birds were lost, at one moment – from the whole of Serbia.

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Serbia Legislation Protection Europe 191

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 10, 2015

In the Old World, Horned (Slavonian) Grebe breeds in a wide belt stretching from Scandinavia to Kamchatka and it spends winters along sea coasts, from Japan to China and from Norway to France, plus the Adriatic and the Black Sea (west and east of the Balkans, respectively). As a consequence, this species is only a rare vagrant in Serbia.

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Serbia Norway France Japan 164

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 3, 2013

In short, the accepted view used to be that a small breeding population of Egyptian Vultures inhabited Southern Africa, but has vanished facing the spread of towns, roads and farms. During my lifetime, this species was rare in my native Serbia, too.

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Sudan Macedonia Botswana Serbia 223

10,000 Birds

MAY 28, 2015

I have asked myself that same question many times over the last six months, until last week, when I was involved in an opening ceremony of five new bird hides at the Palic Lake, by the town of Subotica in the very north of Serbia, along the border with Hungary (all photos are from that area).

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Serbia Spain Birds Hungary 241

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2018

As you know, I started to bird from a canoe, exploring the Danube backwaters in Belgrade, Serbia. It is a fascinating world of swampy forests of willow and poplar, inhabited by Black Storks , White-tailed Eagles , Eastern Olivaceous and Icterine Warblers (above), among more than 200 other species. Nevertheless, Nagy was right.

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Beavers Serbia Hungary Eagles 119

10,000 Birds

JUNE 8, 2017

Shallows provide an ideal spawning ground for almost 50 fish species and submerged islands breeding ground for more than 100 bird species. Beside several well-showing Red-backed Shrikes , the highlight was one uncommon Lesser Grey Shrike (highly localized ** , with only 700 to 1000 breeding pairs in Serbia).

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Romania Serbia Turtles Blackbirds 119

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2017

That is hardly a surprise: this area holds 3 to 4 breeding pairs of White-tailed Eagles, which represents the biggest density per square mile anywhere in the country! While Serbia claims to strive towards the EU membership, it is back to the Chinese credit and Chinese environmental standards.

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Eagles Campaign Otters Serbia 165

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 9, 2014

It breeds in Greenland, Iceland and Svalbard and overwinters (singly and at mountain top hot springs – if Hollywood is to be trusted) along the coasts of northern Europe. In my native Serbia, I’ve observed this species in winter only once, while here in East Anglia every site held one. Nearby Cantley Marshes were the next stop.

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Geese Barn Owls Serbia Sheep 204

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 26, 2015

And I had a friend working in the museum, who put me in touch with their birds curator (with whom I recently birded the Griffon Vulture gorges of western Serbia) and who answered all my questions at the time. I still believe that choosing the right approach may be the most important phase of any research. What more would I ask from eBird?

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Serbia Bosnia Lions Horses 189

10,000 Birds

JUNE 25, 2015

Zlatar in western Serbia, heading towards the town of Sjenica and, behind it, the bridge on the River Vapa. This is my first visit to this area, known as the Madz Brod, where two new breeding species for the country were discovered a decade ago. As we go lower, from glorious sunshine, we enter the morning fog. We wait again.

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Europe Serbia Russia ALA 247