10,000 Birds

JUNE 15, 2023

Late April / early May is the best birding season in the south of Europe and wherever you go, you will have 50% to 100% more species than in any other season. Pity, it is the sleeping hours and not the hunting (morning/evening), but at least they are not forced to socialise with people all day. Fanatical – from dawn till dusk.

India 173

India Africa Serbia Birds 173

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

FEBRUARY 4, 2016

A shot or two coming from the opposite bank, but they do not sound like geese shooting – more like boar hunting. A goose hunt sounds like a WWII battle. This section of the river is known as the Labudovo okno reserve, a Ramsar site and the most important waterbird wintering area in the whole of Serbia.

Geese 173

Geese Boars Hunting Serbia 173

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”. In comparison to the Dorcol Promenade, number of both species and individuals here is smaller.

Serbia 231

Serbia Ducks Birds Eagles 231

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. The biggest count ever was less than 10 birds in the whole of Serbia. Several poachers were waiting in ever thickening darkness (Serbian legislation forbids night hunting).

Geese 143

Geese Serbia Ukraine Estonia 143

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.

Beavers 119

Beavers Serbia Hungary Eagles 119

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

Marshes are the habitats with the greatest species richness in moderate zones, also significant as breeding, wintering and migratory stopover sites for birds; it therefore comes as no surprise that this one is among the 10,000 Important Bird Areas of the World (one per each bird species?). Saxicola rubetra.

Greece 188

Greece Serbia Hunters Cows 188

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 3, 2013

But, from the existing data, the authors have drawn a different conclusion – there is no proof that the breeding population ever existed, that the south of Africa was beyond the species range and that that all observations were of vagrant individuals. During my lifetime, this species was rare in my native Serbia, too.

Sudan 223

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).

Serbia 241

Serbia Spain Birds Hungary 241

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2016

The gamekeeper drives by, I wave my greetings but do not mention the jackals I am observing at the moment: this animal is not protected in Serbia and is allowed for killing year-round (one may say “hunting” instead, but I am having problems trying to spot the difference).

Sheep 127

Sheep Serbia Eagles Mammals 127

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2017

Even if you know nothing of this species, you can tell the eaglets from their parents: youngsters have black hair, while their parents are all grey by now. They lay eggs in late January or early February, and the Statehood Day of Serbia is in mid-February. And the birds moved to the island. April at Veliko Ratno Island, Belgrade.

Montenegro 106

Montenegro Serbia Eagles Eggs 106

10,000 Birds

MAY 12, 2016

Late April / early May is the best birding season in the south of Europe and wherever you go, you will have 50% to 100% more species than in any other season. Recently, I did a bit of embankment birding, nailing 65 species (several of them firsts for the season, European Bee-eaters among them – always exciting).

India 111

India Birds Africa Serbia 111

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2016

Out of just under 200 bird species I observed this year in SE Europe, there are 6 threatened species. point to just one problem source, one over-abundant and highly invasive species – Homo sapiens. point to just one problem source, one over-abundant and highly invasive species – Homo sapiens. 933,000 in 1992-1993.

Montenegro 200

Montenegro Serbia Greece Bulgaria 200

10,000 Birds

APRIL 14, 2023

An Englishwoman, she thought, originally, that she would stay within the British Isles, to see the five or six native species. As she notes, Eastern Europe contains significant pockets of agriculturally undeveloped land, and thus has a far greater diversity of species “from invertebrates to large carnivores” than in Northern Europe.

Barn Owls 113

Barn Owls Owls Finland Serbia 113

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

” Writing about owls means writing about roughly 250 species (I counted 245 on the 2022 Clements spreadsheet, but I might have missed a few, and we all know that each classification system is different). These are behaviors that are most likely to vary across species and topics that make for compelling stories.

Owls 207

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 207