10,000 Birds

JANUARY 12, 2024

Lion – much easier to see than an Aardvark In contrast to East Africa, encounters with mammals while out birding in Europe are relatively few. Over the years, though, I have enjoyed a number of memorable mammal sightings in Europe. At the time we were looking, without success, for White-backed Woodpeckers.

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Fur Otters Bulgaria Estonia 193

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2023

Finding Birds in Northern Greece offers information on how to reach the best sites, detailed hand-drawn maps, and notes on what birds you might see once you get there.

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Greece Bulgaria Macedonia Gambia 203

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2023

Lake Kerkini National Park in the north of Greece is the very best birding area in the Balkan Peninsula and definitely among the top ten hotspots of Europe. Surprisingly, despite being on the site of a former marsh, Kerkini is an artificial reservoir with the purpose of irrigation of arable fields. The lake lies at a mere 35 m / 115 ft a.s.l.

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Greece Pelicans Birds Stray Dog 235

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Kerkini is one of the most important wintering areas throughout Europe. In a spring week it is possible to observe more than 150 species — Black-headed and Rock Buntings , Isabelline Wheatear , Calandra Lark , Tawny Pipit , Rock Nuthatch , Sombre Tit , Masked and Woodchat Shrikes ; Grey-headed and Syrian Woodpeckers among them.

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Greece Wildlife Boars Otters 264

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2014

The three of us were waiting for about an hour at only 2°C, having Great , Eurasian Blue and Coal T**s , Eurasian Nuthatch , Common Blackbird , Goldcrest and Middle Spotted Woodpecker. Birding Black Woodpecker Europe Serbia woodpeckers' Photos (c) Nena & Slobodan Panjkovic.

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Serbia Woodpeckers Europe Blackbirds 220

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

impressive for Central Europe. It was also great to finally travel overseas again, meet a lot of people I did not know (and some I did), to be in a new country… and not just the new country, but its best birding area, where almost all local hotspots are yellow (150+ species) and several are ochre (200+ sp.),

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Austria Factory Asia Battery 298

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 30, 2019

This month we were able to go to Europe again, for our first real vacation in a few years. We stayed with friends in the tiny French town of Cessy, and there I saw my second European woodpecker species, the handsome Great Spotted Woodpecker. Some of my readers may recall that my wife and I went to Spain a few months ago.

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Switzerland Austria Europe Spain 113

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2019

The toughest thing for me, as a local birder, was to choose the most attractive birds because those that attract my attention are generally all too common in the northwest of Europe, from where most visiting birders are coming. You could add Middle Spotted and Grey-headed Woodpeckers to the list. Hence, I asked my friend B.C.,

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Serbia Birds Woodpeckers Breeding 250

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 17, 2022

Add Common Tody-Flycatcher and several Hoffmann’s Woodpeckers and Brown-hooded Parrots to that picture, among many others. My other guide, Mercedes Alpizar, grew up near the Rancho in the Turrialba area, graduated in Ecological Tourism and studied English at the University of Costa Rica.

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Costa Rica Rats Parrots Raccoons 253

10,000 Birds

APRIL 30, 2020

And in Shanghai, the situation is relatively relaxed now – a big difference from what I hear from my friends in the US and Europe. Nanhui does not regularly have any woodpeckers except for the Wryneck , which can be found on migration. The obvious local star of the bird world is the Reed Parrotbill. Narcissus Flycatcher.

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2020 China Asia Owls 193

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 25, 2018

In two months they will depart for valleys, leaving the bare branches bare of birds, too – apart from woodpeckers – but for now they are in the forest. A sudden flight of a forest ghost, the Black Woodpecker goes from one side of the gully to another. Black Woodpecker , photo Heinonlein/Wikimedia Commons.

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Serbia Woodpeckers Birds Bears 120

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 11, 2022

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. Djerdap (a.k.a. look out for Alpine Swifts ).

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Serbia Birds Woodpeckers Romania 250

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 3, 2020

And I am in the southeast of Europe. A bulge in a tree fork behind, likely a broken branch… no, it’s a Black Woodpecker. published in the US as “Birds of Europe”), shows only a male in breeding plumage. Oh, who’d go back home now? My favourite poplar tree. mi2 of the Danube backwaters in Belgrade, Serbia.

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Serbia Birds Ducks Cyprus 277

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

Johann Georg Wagner has seven birds named after him, from a chachalaca to a woodpecker, but would he have found more if hadn’t accidentally shot himself while out collecting? So, too, did Captain Meriwether Lewis, (he of woodpecker fame), but to this day nobody knows whether he was shot or committed suicide.

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Falcons Collecting 2003 Wounded 230

10,000 Birds

MAY 21, 2020

It can still be an entirely opposite end of a continent, but – if you are residing in Europe – the flight can be as short as one (from Germany) to two hours (from UK). I am talking of the very heart of the Balkans and the final birding frontier of Europe: Serbia.

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Serbia Sanctuary Birds Bosnia 317

10,000 Birds

JULY 2, 2020

I can hear a Great Spotted Woodpecker calling. Chamois is an agile goat-antelope with short hooked horns, found in mountainous areas of Europe from Spain to the Caucasus. A Song Thrush is singing almost all the time, occasionally joined by a Common Woodpigeon. An hour later, I add another layer of clothing.

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Serbia Bears Birds Mammals 264

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 13, 2016

In the most of Europe, Brown Bear is a mythical creature that lives only in mediaeval tapestries and folk tales. Great Spotted Woodpecker – Dendrocopos major. Eurasian Green Woodpecker – Picus viridis. It has become extinct, one may say, but such formulation hides the gruesome fact: it has been exterminated.

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Bears Greece Europe Slovenia 270

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2024

The Oostvaardersplassen were supposed to be industrial land but by the time the engineers showed up with their shovels the place had transformed into the best wetland in northern Europe. It is wild and very beautiful. The reeds and brush were alive with Cetti’s Warbler and squealing Water Rail.

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Beavers Netherlands Eagles Geese 144

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 15, 2020

These two shorebirds are exceedingly common in western Europe. Iberian Green Woodpecker, Madrid, Spain. Mexico has a good number of greenish or rusty Woodpeckers. Mexico has a good number of greenish or rusty Woodpeckers. Since those were both firsts for me, they earned a place on my 2019 list.

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Austria Spain 2019 Birds 150

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2021

Once I observed a man walking his two small dogs here, passing by a perched White-tailed Eagle but looking down at grass and not noticing the largest raptor in Europe at all. The eagle seemed well-used to people and paid no attention either.

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Otters Protest Protesting Protesters 263

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2021

For some reason that is hard for me to fathom, there is no such bird as a Cape Woodpecker. Originally restricted to Africa, it is now also well-established in parts of Europe and South Africa. Just possibly it exists but just has not been discovered yet. A challenge for young birders, maybe. Nice not to be a kid, too.

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South Africa Africa Lesotho Nigeria 240

10,000 Birds

APRIL 30, 2015

A quick check of the Collins 2 (I think American birders know this book as the “Birds of Europe”, but here, some branding mastermind has interconnected the company’s name and the book title) revealed that we are facing two Siberian Greylag Geese (race rubrirostris ). Picture 7: Grey-headed Woodpecker – Picus canus.

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Greece Woodpeckers Eagles Birds 249

10,000 Birds

MARCH 1, 2024

I’d love to have known where and when the Great Spotted Woodpecker in my photograph below was ringed, but though the ring is clearly visible, the number stamped on it isn’t. Through a few Lesser Black-backs nest in Spain, this bird was most likely to have been a winter visitor to the area from breeding grounds in Northern Europe.

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Lithuania Iceland Morocco Ireland 130

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker – Dendrocopos minor. Middle Spotted Woodpecker – Dendrocopos medius. Great Spotted Woodpecker – Dendrocopos major. Black Woodpecker – Dryocopus martius. Eurasian Green Woodpecker – Picus viridis. Grey-headed Woodpecker – Picus canus.

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Owls Greece Serbia Woodpeckers 106

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 18, 2015

Cardinal Woodpecker. Three species of woodpecker, from the large Bearded Woodpecker to the smaller Golden-tailed Woodpecker and the even smaller Cardinal Woodpecker, searched the trunks and branches, while on the smallest tips of the branches the tiny Long-billed Crombec clambered about in search of food.

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South Africa Tortoises Woodpeckers Birds 145

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2022

Assuming that the (North American) Imperial Woodpecker and the Ivory-billed Woodpecker are both extinct, the Great Slaty Woodpecker is the largest woodpecker species alive. One would think that for a species as common in Europe as the Grey-headed Woodpecker , the HBW would spend some effort to update the species entry.

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Birds Myanmar China Chicago 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 31, 2012

There are two species in the Old World woodpecker genus that sounds like birds that birders would never be able to see. Neither even makes their own nesting cavities; they use the abandoned holes of other woodpeckers. Eurasian Wrynecks are found breeding across the temperate zones of Europe and Asia.

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Hungary Asia Woodpeckers Africa 174

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2020

The best moments… Driving through a poplar plantation, from clearings with young saplings to full grown trees, I heard an Ortolan Bunting singing in the rain and a Great Spotted Woodpecker calling from the tree crowns. This was only my seventh observation of this species in Europe (3 in Greece, 4 in Serbia).

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Greece Bulgaria Birds Serbia 241

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 12, 2013

A mug of coffee in a fog-enveloped willow grove with a two Great Spotted Woodpeckers busy chasing each other and then drumming the bark looking for breakfast, followed by an unusual tsrrrrrrrr – three Eurasian Nuthatches looking for food. Birding Europe Serbia' I hate fog. Photos copyright © Senka Puhalo & Dragan Simic.

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Serbia Hoarding Europe Woodpeckers 221

10,000 Birds

MAY 18, 2023

Disinterested Gray Langurs await us in the next tree crown; one Black-rumped Flameback woodpecker is searching the branches, while one gorgeous Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher flies by. It belongs to the same species as those in Europe, but a smaller subspecies ( Sus scrofa davidi ). Maybe his reputation is not without a foundation?

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India Lions Boars Mammals 147

10,000 Birds

MAY 27, 2024

Given how far Hokkaido is from Europe, it seems a bit surprising how many bird species wintering on this Japanese island have a name starting with “Eurasian” Or how many of these species I have also seen in my parents’ garden in Germany. Blue T**s, Great T**s) or are predators of their nests (Great Spotted Woodpecker).

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Research Germany Iran Humane 181

10,000 Birds

JUNE 10, 2012

It is one of the premiere birding destinations in Europe, where Saker Falcons , Great Bustards , and Black Woodpeckers can be found, to say nothing of Aquatic Warblers , Pygmy Cormorants , and Whiskered Terns.

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Hungary Europe Woodpeckers Birds 154

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2013

They were once a widespread and diverse group, however, with many fossils known from what are now North America and Europe. ’s “land bird clade,” with passerines, parrots, falcons, woodpeckers, the Coraciiformes (kingfishers, hornbills, bee-eaters, etc.), The six living species are all found in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Kenya Parrots Africa North America 175

10,000 Birds

MAY 9, 2018

Jochen is still convinced Black Woodpeckers exist and Yellow-crowned Night-Herons don’t.) Just read her short biography on the Beat Writers page : Angela has lived, traveled, and birded across the southern US to the Rocky Mountains, in Alaska and the Caribbean, and seven countries in Europe.

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McDonalds Alaska Birds Europe 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 23, 2012

There are seventeen species of hedgehog found across Europe, Asia, and Africa, the only places where hedgehogs are native. europaeus , found throughout most of western Europe and parts of northern Europe as well, though the hybrids that are often sold in American pet stores might be even more familiar.

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Hedgehogs Hungary Opossums North America 169

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

Presuming that you live somewhere in Europe and plan a car trip to Greece, let me suggest a couple of routes that will increase your tour list. Other species of interest include the southernmost breeding population of Greylag Goose in Europe, Goosander (at bigger and deeper Megali Prespa), Hazel Grouse (at Mt.

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Greece Albania Macedonia Europe 178

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 29, 2020

Cuba (twice), South America (twice), Europe and Morocco (once) and Bali (once). And the birds along the walk to the estuary weren’t bad, either: Looks like nesting time has arrived for this Golden-cheeked Woodpecker. In other words, I travelled, sometimes every weekend. But this Bare-necked Tiger-Heron was a real treat for me.

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Birds 2006 Mexico Morocco 163