This february I was in Sicily for a week. It wasn't just a birding trip, so I didn't do a whole week of just birding, plus we had some days of bad weather. Never the less, I would like to share my experiences from there and show some photos.We were situated in the east/ south east of the island, right at the sea. The view of Mount Etna alone was so fascinating! But now to the birding part!
Birding there is just so awesome, but also not that easy sometimes. The most difficult part was finding places to bird. You can't just drive somewhere, get out of the car and start birding. Almost all of the landscape is private and fenced and gated. Which is really annoying because the landscape is so cool and sometimes you would like to just go hiking there.
That said, if you do a little resarch, you can find all the Nature Reserves and Salines and stuff and do some awesome birding there.
The first reserve I visited was "Riserva Naturale Orientata Fiume Ciane e Saline di Sira" a little south of Syrakus. There you have a nice mixture of salines, sea and a river mouth. I had three lifers there: Greater Flamingo, Sardinian Warbler and Pintail. Other species included Greenshank, Common Sandpiper, Shoveler, Mallard, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Great Egret, Great Crested Grebe, ...
Probably the coolest reserve was "Vendicari", south of Noto. Habitats include salines, marshes, reeds, sea, beach, ... so really diverse. There were a lot of Greater Flamingos, a lot of ducks, herons and egrets, Sardinian Warbler, Stonechat, Citting Cisticola, Cetti's Warbler, Grey Plover, Slender- billed Gull, ...
Another Reserve I can recommend is "Saline Nature Reserve Priolo", which is a saline a little south of Augusta. The coolest thing is that there is a birding hide out into the lake so you can get up close to Flamingos. And I mean really close, like 10 meters (30 feet). We also saw there all kind of ducks and herons, Slender- billed Gulls, black- necked divers, a Common Sandpiper, ...
What also is really fascinating in Sicily is sea watching and gull watching. All in all I saw 6 different species of gulls: Yellow- legged Gull, Blackheaded Gull, Lesser black- backed Gull, Mediterranian Gull, Caspian Gull and Slender- billed Gull. I also saw Sandwich Terns and some unidentified Shearwaters.
The highlight of the trip was on the last day before departure: Booted Eagles! there were at least three of the light colour morph. Once they were with two large falcons, unfortunetly I only saw the falcons for a short time, so I couldnt tell if they were Lanners or Peregrines. Never the less, the eagles were just so awsome!
All in all it was a really cool trip and I can really recommend Sicily for birding (and for the food of course ).
During the trip I had 13 new lifers: Booted Eagle, Pintail, Grey Plover, Slender- billed Gull, Sandwich Tern, Cetti's Warbler, Citting Cisticola, Eurasian Crag Martin, Italian Sparrow, Sardinian Warbler, Spotless Starling, Cattle Egret and Greater Flamingo and I saw 10 of my targeted species.
Some targeted species, like Bonelli's Eagle, Purple Swamphen, Audouin's Gull, Rock Sparrow or Calander Lark, I unfortunetly didn't see but that doesn't matter, now there is a reason for another trip to Sicily :king:
good birding!
(Pictures: Greater Flamingos, Spotless Starlings, Slender- billed Gull, Mediterranian Gulls, Black- headed Gulls and Sandwich Tern)
Birding there is just so awesome, but also not that easy sometimes. The most difficult part was finding places to bird. You can't just drive somewhere, get out of the car and start birding. Almost all of the landscape is private and fenced and gated. Which is really annoying because the landscape is so cool and sometimes you would like to just go hiking there.
That said, if you do a little resarch, you can find all the Nature Reserves and Salines and stuff and do some awesome birding there.
The first reserve I visited was "Riserva Naturale Orientata Fiume Ciane e Saline di Sira" a little south of Syrakus. There you have a nice mixture of salines, sea and a river mouth. I had three lifers there: Greater Flamingo, Sardinian Warbler and Pintail. Other species included Greenshank, Common Sandpiper, Shoveler, Mallard, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Great Egret, Great Crested Grebe, ...
Probably the coolest reserve was "Vendicari", south of Noto. Habitats include salines, marshes, reeds, sea, beach, ... so really diverse. There were a lot of Greater Flamingos, a lot of ducks, herons and egrets, Sardinian Warbler, Stonechat, Citting Cisticola, Cetti's Warbler, Grey Plover, Slender- billed Gull, ...
Another Reserve I can recommend is "Saline Nature Reserve Priolo", which is a saline a little south of Augusta. The coolest thing is that there is a birding hide out into the lake so you can get up close to Flamingos. And I mean really close, like 10 meters (30 feet). We also saw there all kind of ducks and herons, Slender- billed Gulls, black- necked divers, a Common Sandpiper, ...
What also is really fascinating in Sicily is sea watching and gull watching. All in all I saw 6 different species of gulls: Yellow- legged Gull, Blackheaded Gull, Lesser black- backed Gull, Mediterranian Gull, Caspian Gull and Slender- billed Gull. I also saw Sandwich Terns and some unidentified Shearwaters.
The highlight of the trip was on the last day before departure: Booted Eagles! there were at least three of the light colour morph. Once they were with two large falcons, unfortunetly I only saw the falcons for a short time, so I couldnt tell if they were Lanners or Peregrines. Never the less, the eagles were just so awsome!
All in all it was a really cool trip and I can really recommend Sicily for birding (and for the food of course ).
During the trip I had 13 new lifers: Booted Eagle, Pintail, Grey Plover, Slender- billed Gull, Sandwich Tern, Cetti's Warbler, Citting Cisticola, Eurasian Crag Martin, Italian Sparrow, Sardinian Warbler, Spotless Starling, Cattle Egret and Greater Flamingo and I saw 10 of my targeted species.
Some targeted species, like Bonelli's Eagle, Purple Swamphen, Audouin's Gull, Rock Sparrow or Calander Lark, I unfortunetly didn't see but that doesn't matter, now there is a reason for another trip to Sicily :king:
good birding!
(Pictures: Greater Flamingos, Spotless Starlings, Slender- billed Gull, Mediterranian Gulls, Black- headed Gulls and Sandwich Tern)
Attachments
Last edited: