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I am talking of the very heart of the Balkans and the final birding frontier of Europe: Serbia. When choosing the top birding area of Serbia for a weekend visit, head for lowlands, Deliblato Sands and Labudovo Okno complex with 250 bird species. Serbia – the big picture. How he prepared for his tour of Serbia?
Birdwise, I am lagging some 10 to 15 species behind my usual tallies, considering everything – not too bad at all. The post Birding Serbia in the 2020 appeared first on 10,000 Birds. I was mostly birding once per week (and sometimes fewer). But I rarely made a longer excursion, although after a few months it became possible.
The Ural Owl inhabits old and undisturbed boreal forests, in an unbroken belt from Sweden and Finland across Russia to Japan, and is rarely seen to the south, only here and there, in the Carpathians (Slovakia/Ukraine/Romania/eastern Serbia) and Dinaric Alps (Croatia/Bosnia/western Serbia). And where to look for the Ural Owl in Serbia?
We are in the Tara Mountain in western Serbia, ranging from 1,000-1,500 m / 3,000-5,000 ft above sea level. There are more than 1100 plant species, the most valuable being the 76 endemics. Other species include Roe Deer (also spotted), Wildcat , European Pine Marten and Otter. Photo Dusanka Stokovic-Simic.
It was an unexpected bird tour, without too much planning and aimed at a few target species, of which we saw most, but the main one eluded us… Early morning, leaving the last houses behind… and a Little Owl awaits us on a traffic sign. The post Birding northern Serbia, or a sudden bird tour appeared first on 10,000 Birds.
In the chill morning of late January, I am driving east of Belgrade towards the Two Towers section of the Danube and the best waterfowling bonanza in the whole of Serbia. Actually, I visited the Two Towers twice, had about 50 bird species each time and about 60 in total, so this is sort of a composite tour description.
“I would certainly recommend Serbia to visiting birders. I chalked up 132 species in a pretty relaxed eight days, during which birds shared the agenda with culture. With 154 eBirded species almost single-handedly spotted by the UK expat Geoff Laight, the Paljuvi is the latest addition to the top-5 list. eBird bar chart. #4
Iron Gates, after the ancient Roman name for the gorge, Porta Ferrea) National Park lies in the north-eastern Serbia, where the Danube has incised the longest gorge of Europe, extending for over 100 kilometre (62 mi), stretching from the medieval Golubac Fortress to the Roman castrum Diana. Other species include Grey Wagtail and Marsh Tit.
This October, a previously unknown name shined in the eBird alerts in Serbia: Raphael Nussbaumer. Here is how he prepared for his tour of Serbia: Guest-author : Raphael Nussbaumer. This was the feeling I had last October, when we travelled to Serbia with my wife for a week. There was none in Serbia. Stage 2 – Detailing.
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 has 317 eBirded species so far, or 89% of the 356 in the national checklist. The country has one eBird hotspot with 200+ and 48 with more than 100 bird species. The country has one eBird hotspot with 200+ and 48 with more than 100 bird species. Spring migration March to April , 270 eBirded species.
About 120 species have been recorded so far. About 180 species have been recorded so far. Almost 230 species have been recorded so far. Raptors to look for in this reserve are Golden Eagle and Short-toed Snake Eagle , European Honey-buzzard and Peregrine Falcon. Use the Zrenjanin road to reach the area.
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.
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.
Also, it is a part of the international ecological corridor and the “Confluence of the Sava and the Danube Rivers” Important Bird Area (IBA), already proposed for a nature reserve by the Government’s Institute for the Protection of Nature of Serbia. It is a spacious floodplain between the River Danube and the levee, 2.1
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.
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. Illustrations.
Last month, I birded my favourite local patch, Beljarica – the best eBird hotspot in Belgrade city and the 3rd best in Serbia – four times. Before I start, my readers are already asking themselves why are they familiar with the name of this locality? With more than 30 birds, Black Storks became truly common. Photo: Gordan Pomorisac.
Some 40 km north of Belgrade, Serbia, I am driving to the very end of an oxbow lake with the intention of looking for the Ruddy Shelducks ( Tadorna ferruginea ) that were found here the day before. I already have a history of searches for this species. Ruddy Shelducks do not normally show up in Serbia.
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'
In February 2022, the Collaborative submitted 127 checklists in 7 countries ( Costa Rica , United States , Mexico , Trinidad and Tobago , United Kingdom , and Serbia ). The Collaborative’s all-time country with the most species observed is Costa Rica , with 784 species, out of 911 observed on eBird overall!
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.
Hence, in land-locked Serbia, it has been recorded only three times: in 1857, one was shot at the Morava River; in 1993, one was observed by a bird photographer Rastko Aleksandrov at the Centa fish farm, north of Belgrade; and in 2012, a team of Croat and Serbian ornithologists found one at the Belgrade city rubbish dump.
Against the European regulation, the Northern Goshawk is a huntable species in Serbia, which is used as an excuse to indiscriminately shoot all medium-sized raptors (especially buzzards) because they are all colloquially called “goshawks”. Here it is a strictly wintering species, and the first individual I have seen this winter.
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).
This map shows the distribution of the World’s bird species, based on overlying the breeding and wintering ranges of all known species. I used to live in Botswana, where there are about 450 bird species in an area a few dozen miles from the capital; then somewhat naively moved back to Serbia with mere 250 species around the capital.
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.
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.
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.
I observed this species in the Little Rann of Kutch in India and since then, have been burning with desire to see them back home. Back in November, one group of British birders visited Serbia and, as one of them later wrote in his blog, their local guide promised them the GGS – “That one is guaranteed“, the guide declared. ‘He
Avala, some 10 miles south of Belgrade, Serbia. Avala is a low, gentle sloping, wooded mountain (oak, hornbeam and maple; beech at higher elevation), barely over 500 metres high, inhabited by six woodpecker species – Great , Middle and Little Spotted , Green , Gray-headed (rare) and Black (about two pairs). at the very top of Mt.
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.
In 2022, the 10,000 Birds eBird Collaborative submitted 1,837 checklists from 9 countries ( Australia , China , Costa Rica , Mexico , Saint Lucia , Serbia , Trinidad and Tobago , United Kingdom , and the United States ) and observed 1,273 species. The Collaborative life list increased to 4,140.
Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia, offers several great birding spots and here are some recommendations for areas to go birding in and around the city, how to get there by public transport, and some of the bird species you might expect to see. It is home to almost a hundred bird species, including woodpeckers and songbirds.
In my native Serbia, I’ve observed this species in winter only once, while here in East Anglia every site held one. While not those we were looking for, I am not disappointed: this is twice as many as I had ever seen in Serbia. First site of the day was Breydon Water, the large estuary at the mouths of the Yare and the Waveney.
I am parked at the bridge over the Reva Pond in the suburb of Belgrade, Serbia, mere 150 metres away from the nearest buildings behind me, but facing the fascinating undeveloped 1.2 In that first year, about 95 bird species were recorded here, not to mention the Otter, listed as the Near Threatened species in the IUCN Red List.
Iron Gates (Djerdap) national park, Serbia. Other species are there, too, but impossible to see. This one is most likely my latest swift in Serbia ever. Small canyon among wooded hills. Framed by red Permian sandstone, Eric Hyman is staring into the bare branches of a dead tree, or, to be more precise, into some fluttering t**s.
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.,
along the Carska Bara Nature Reserve, Serbia, a Common Reed Bunting awaits me on a low branch… and then performs a real dance, twitching its tail sideways and following it in a series of quick steps! Here it is a strictly wintering species, and the first individual I have seen this winter. A way to beat the cold?
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.
I haven’t increased my life or country list, only my city list for one species (I don’t even know which one). And these species would not come that close, only the White-tailed Eagles were always, and still are, easy to find. At first you have a lot more species than lists, but afterwards (as a reward?),
Once upon a time, vast forests of Quercus robur , known as common, pedunculate, European or English oak blanketed the Sava River floodplain, all the way from Croatia down to the river’s confluence in Belgrade, Serbia. And that is where Q. and I were heading this morning. We had a Common Cuckoo and several Northern Lapwings by the roadside.
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.
Belgrade City Environmental Secretariat accepted the initiative and the Institute for the Protection of Nature of Serbia produced the study and the official proposal for the protection of 18.6 It took 12 years to reach this point. The initiative to protect this area was launched in 2010. sq km / 7.2 sq mi of the Danube Backwaters in 2014.
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