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The Final Days of the Danube backwaters in Belgrade: Chinese Belt and Road Initiative is coming to Serbia

10,000 Birds

When I reached the levee earlier that morning, I met an elderly hunter from whom I learned that there was an ongoing duck and pheasant hunt, but no one was shooting from, nor towards the embankment, hence I should be safe there. These handsome finches breed in the far north of Europe and come here for the winter only.

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December birding in Belgrade

10,000 Birds

In Belgrade, Serbia, winter months offer surprisingly good birding possibilities. Two more aspects contribute to bird diversity: these are the inner city waters, so hunting is forbidden, and the Danube rarely freezes, and even then it would be the last water to freeze. And so, there the birds are, in the middle of the city.

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Kamikaze Pigeons and a War to Extinction

10,000 Birds

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 ). APRIL 12: Second flight of a b h and then she hunts. ” Falcons do hunt pigeons, we all know that, but what is a Kamikaze pigeon? And a war to extinction??

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The Great Bustard Search is On (1)

10,000 Birds

I am preparing for the new census of one of the rarest birds of Serbia, the globally threatened Great Bustard , taking place two days from now. Habitat destruction combined with hunting has pushed them away from their former breeding grounds. Bustards are being counted in February because their breeding season starts in March.

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The 20 best birds of Belgrade and where to find them

10,000 Birds

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. Cranes breed in very small numbers in UK but are always impressive en masse. Black Storks migrate along and breed in the Danube flood zone.

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The European Christmas Bird Count

10,000 Birds

The other day I counted my favourite section of the Danube River, the wide and shallow Labudovo okno Ramsar site in Serbia. These globally threatened raptors breed from Ukraine eastward through Siberia and only a few come to overwinter here. The biggest count ever was less than 10 birds in the whole of Serbia.

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Birding from a Hide

10,000 Birds

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).

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