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Birding the Bear Mountain of Serbia

10,000 Birds

A narrow forest road takes us to the chain blocking the entrance, with a sign “Area closed – bear danger”. A Eurasian Blackbird is checking for the remaining maize seeds. I am on a mission to finally see my first Brown Bear and everything else becomes secondary. Now would be the biggest chance for a bear… or maybe not?

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The Oriolest Oriole

10,000 Birds

Icterus is a wide-ranging neotropical genus consisting of the technicolor blackbirds we call orioles. Baltimore Orioles are surprisingly slight when you get a look at them, but troupials are about the size of a jay, and with the bearing to go with it. The two dozen species are, nearly to an individual, long bodied and bicolored.

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