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 264

Bulgaria McDonalds Eagles Serbia 264

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

In Belgrade, Serbia, winter months offer surprisingly good birding possibilities. Already recorded this winter are Black-throated Diver , Goosander and several Greater Scaups , together with Ferruginous and Tufted Ducks and the regulars, Common Goldeneye , Caspian Gull , Pygmy Cormorant and White-tailed Eagle.

Serbia 303

Serbia Birds Woodpeckers Ducks 303

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2017

Despite mostly guiding them, I still somehow managed to see a European Badger sitting and watching me back for several seconds, before it slipped into bushes and quite a few White-tailed Eagles , e.g. four in just one morning. And how about Black Storks, otters and eagles? And, with it, its otters, eagles and storks.

Eagles 177

Eagles Campaign Otters Serbia 177

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.

Mali 264

Mali Serbia Eagles Birds 264

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 3, 2020

mi2 of the Danube backwaters in Belgrade, Serbia. A White-tailed Eagle is calling somewhere from the forest. Judging by Google Earth, some 250 m / 800 ft away, there’s a Greater Spotted Eagle , dark adult that appears like a black hole, like an object pulling and eating all the light, itself appearing as dark as can be.

Serbia 282

Serbia Birds Ducks Cyprus 282

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.

Serbia 131

Serbia Eagles Falcons Farming 131

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2013

Fruska Gora is a low, forested massif – mostly oak, lime, beech, hornbeam and ash – situated in northern Serbia. This is where an Eastern Imperial Eagle comes for breakfast! In the early 20th century, Imperial Eagles used to live not only in the northern lowlands of Serbia, but also in the southern highland plateaus.

Serbia 215

Serbia Eagles Hungary Cooking 215

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 250

Serbia Birds Woodpeckers Breeding 250

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2016

For example, I simply cannot comprehend how such seemingly common species such as the Common Pochard (yes, for the third time, the common), still allowed for shooting in Serbia and many other countries, found its way into the Red List of Threatened Species. Disturbance on breeding grounds (e.g. Lesser White-fronted Goose by Ingar Oien.

Serbia 203

Serbia Greece Montenegro Bulgaria 203

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. White-tailed Eagles by Szekeres Levente.

Serbia 177

Serbia Protection Eagles Ducks 177

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. Dubovacki Rit; photos (3) by Slobodan Puzovic. Dubovacki Rit , Labudovo okno. Getting there: From Belgrade through Pancevo, Kovin and Gaj.

Turtles 176

Turtles 2002 Serbia Eagles 176

10,000 Birds

JUNE 12, 2014

These days I am busy with something called the “avitourism product“ of Belgrade, Serbia. When discussing this topic for local media, I often say that because of their White-tailed Eagles , the Scottish island of Mull makes 2 million pounds per year from birders alone. White-tailed Eagle – year round (breeds inside the city).

Serbia 185

Serbia Eagles Birds Sparrows 185

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2020

Then about a 100 km to the Ismarida Lake and Porto Lagos lagoons for breeding and migrating waders. This was only my seventh observation of this species in Europe (3 in Greece, 4 in Serbia). Farther on along the levee, there was a huge White-tailed Eagle standing on a big, old poplar. I am a stranger in his realm.

Greece 247

Greece Bulgaria Birds Serbia 247

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. And I didn’t pay enough attention because one very dark eagle flew by at the same time, an adult Greater Spotted Eagle. The biggest count ever was less than 10 birds in the whole of Serbia.

Geese 155

Geese Serbia Birds Estonia 155

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).

Europe 241

Europe Serbia Woodpeckers Birds 241

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 10, 2022

I observed White-tailed Eagles likely a few thousand times, and this didn’t strike me as the dark young bird. The next option would be a very dark adult Greater Spotted Eagle … but I wasn’t ready! My scope was still in my rucksack, and by the time I pulled it out, the spook was nowhere to be seen.

Otters 263

Otters Croatia Eagles Protection 263

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'

Serbia 235

Serbia Europe Netherlands Eagles 235

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.

Serbia 243

Serbia Birds Ducks Eagles 243

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. This section also offered a European Turtle Dove.

Farming 264

Farming Birds Fish Boars 264

10,000 Birds

JUNE 13, 2013

The reward for the troubles comes in the shape of a Lesser Spotted Eagle circling in a thermal at the opposite side of the meadow, two Stag Beetles ( Lucanus cervus ) engaged in a wrestling match on a low branch, Roe Deer swiftly running across the road… But what are we doing in that meadow? Conservation Europe falcons Serbia'

Falcons 235

Falcons Serbia 2007 Europe 235

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

Otters 183

Otters Serbia Fish Mammals 183

10,000 Birds

MAY 19, 2022

A few Eurasian Tree Sparrows land by my car as I am scanning for Purple and Squacco Herons , Pygmy Cormorants and Black-necked Grebes in their brilliant breeding plumage. An immature White-tailed Eagle. The same eagle? Unlike the wide open Centa, birding in Sakule (cover photo) is mostly done from the embankment.

Breeders 223

Breeders Mules Farming Fish 223

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.

Serbia 176

Serbia Norway France Japan 176

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.

Beavers 127

Beavers Serbia Eagles Hungary 127

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. The work is expected to take two months, after which the killer line will be removed.

Sudan 236

Sudan Macedonia Botswana Serbia 236

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2017

They do not breed, only winter here! Widespread across northern regions of northern hemisphere, they breed in Arctic-Alpine forest zone. Widespread across northern regions of northern hemisphere, they breed in Arctic-Alpine forest zone. White-tailed Eagles rely on fish as a staple diet for their offspring and that clutch failed.

Montenegro 109

Montenegro Eagles Serbia Fish 109

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

Their common names reflect their size, appearance, residence, and sometimes their sound, ranging from the simple to the eponymous: Little Owl, Powerful Owl, Pharaoh Eagle-Owl, Cloud-Forest Pygmy-Owl, Pearl-spotted Owlet, Morepork, Christmas Island Boobook, Blakiston’s Fish-Owl.

Owls 224

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 224

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). It is a winter trap for rare gulls and that is where I found the 4th Great Black-backed Gull for Serbia this winter, as well as the 6th Pallas’s Gull two winters ago.

Serbia 245

Serbia Stray Dog Protection Botswana 245

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2014

Even among the protected areas of Serbia, the Iron Gates National Park (in Serbian: Djerdap) stands out as better preserved. Birds of the Iron Gates: While the best birding season here is the breeding period (May to June), the Iron Gates is also an important migratory stopover and wintering area. Trips birdfinder Europe Serbia'

Serbia 197

Serbia Turtles Birds Eagles 197

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?). Short-toed Snake-eagle. Saxicola rubetra.

Greece 199

Greece Serbia Hunters Cows 199

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 31, 2017

They are declining in Serbia and in these lowlands, they are nowadays commonly spotted only on migration, but have mostly retreated from the plains (except some steppe pastures) and in the breeding season are common in the mountains above the upper forest line. A pair displaying at the end of August, well after the breeding season?

Serbia 123

Serbia Breeding Woodpeckers Feral 123

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2016

July is that boring period after the breeding and prior to migration season. I know that you believe that Serbia is a land-locked country, but Belgrade city was actually built on an island in the sea. Sandy terrains are at their best during spring migration and this is the off season for such habitats.

Sheep 131

Sheep Turtles Squirrels Europe 131

10,000 Birds

APRIL 22, 2013

In the end, it was birding that has taken him from his native Serbia, across the Balkans and Turkey, to the very borders of the Old World: East Anglia and Spain, southern Africa and India, where he chased that country’s rarest owl. Steve answers: Bonelli’s Eagle ! We look forward to many more missives from Dragan.

Spain 229

Spain Terrapins Eagles Europe 229

10,000 Birds

MAY 15, 2014

A large raptor just across the hilltop… Georgos says that at this time of year, we can expect Common Buzzard , Booted , Lesser Spotted and White-tailed Eagles. The bird is not showing again, so we use the elimination system: the first and the last are way too different, and dealing with the other two, we ID it as a Lesser Spotted Eagle.

Greece 163

Greece Pelicans Breeding Buffalo 163

10,000 Birds

APRIL 27, 2017

Best birds: Common Shelduck , Garganey , Ferruginous Duck , Little Bittern , White-tailed Eagle , Black and Whiskered Terns , Eurasian Penduline Tit , Bearded Reedling , Savi’s Warbler , Common Reed Bunting. At the southeast part of the lake is a breeding colony of Black-crowned Night , Purple and Squacco Herons. eBird checklist.

Birds 211

Birds 2017 Eagles Otters 211