Best birding in Europe? (1 Viewer)

[temmie]

The best birding in Europe can be had in Georgia, Armenia, Turkey, Israël, Ethiopia, Morocco, Senegambia and Scandinavia.

You're welcome

 

[THE_FERN]

The best birding in Europe can be had in Georgia, Armenia, Turkey, Israël, Ethiopia, Morocco, Senegambia and Scandinavia.

You're welcome

Has Senegambia, israel and Ethiopia joined the EU? Or is that some wry comment about immigration? (And when did Gambia and Senegal unite? Or did you mean the hotel?). Perhaps this is Eurovision Europe

 

[temmie]

Has Senegambia, israel and Ethiopia joined the EU? Or is that some wry comment about immigration? (And when did Gambia and Senegal unite? Or did you mean the hotel?). Perhaps this is Eurovision Europe

I have a lot of fun browsing ebird's data and I noticed that the UK has the highest species count in Europe with 616 species, which is higher than #2 Spain (603 species).

I thought this was maybe due to more birders in the UK, which may be true, but to my surprise there are actually over 100k more checklists submitted in Spain.

I love birding in the UK, and the birding culture, but I've always considered Spain the place to go if you wanted to see the greatest diversity of species in Europe.

Is anyone else surprised by this? Is there a better way to interpret these numbers?
Does Britain have more rarities, which inflates the total number of birds seen?

I am replying with the sentence above, in bold, in mind. Imho, the question is about seeing a big diversity of European bird species, and if so, I would recommend anyone to go to the countries I mentioned. Many European birds are wintering there, so technically, those same birds you would look for in Europe (and sometimes the very same individuals).
I recently went to Senegambia and saw loads of species that are summer breeders in Europe, often very confiding at close distance. So again, if you want to see the biggest variety of European species, go to one of those countries. No wry comment intended.

 

[THE_FERN]

Yes. Mine was meant to be tongue in cheek.

And go to Mexico if you want to see US birds for the same reason

Edit: and you're right of course. Europe is too expensive and it's full of Europeans...