10,000 Birds

JANUARY 16, 2020

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). Two years ago I screamed “UralOwlUralOwlUralOwl!!!”

Serbia 244

Serbia Owls Slovakia Bosnia 244

10,000 Birds

MAY 21, 2020

Depending on your particular interest, opt for March/April (spring migration), May/June (breeding season), August to October (autumn migration), or November/December when waterbird migration reaches its peak. So far Serbia has 326 eBirded species or 90% of the 362 birds in its official checklist. Top-5 hotspots.

Serbia 317

Serbia Sanctuary Birds Bosnia 317

10,000 Birds

APRIL 26, 2018

Our destination lies further west, along the Drina River, which marks the border between Serbia and Bosnia. Yet, in the late 1970s there still were six colonies with about 40 breeding pairs left, but in the early 1990s only two colonies and 22 pairs persisted (of which only 13 bred in 1991) – five of them in this gorge.

Serbia 105

Serbia Herzegovina Bosnia Sheep 105

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 26, 2015

Somewhere between the latest TV footage from Bosnia, I saw a pair of ornithologists, one a biology student, the other one the Natural History Museum director, birding the nearby mountain. One thing is, to allow for species maps to show only data with chosen breeding code so I could depict the rookeries I was searching for this spring.

Serbia 189

Serbia Bosnia Research Lions 189