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Birding European Cities - May-June 2019 (1 Viewer)

C

Caon

Well-known member
I'll be spending a few days each in the following cities between May and June: Dublin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Rome, Interlaken, Nice, Montpellier, & Barcelona. I won't have access to car so all birding will likely be restricted to within the city. Any tips on local specialty birds (never been to mainland Europe before) or hotspots would be appreciated! Thanks :)
 
Two excellent places to visit that are easily accessible by public transport are the London Wetland Centre and, in Barcelona, the Llobregat delta.
 
With a couple of days in Interlaken, I hope you don't stay in the town all the time but go up into the mountains. Besides the scenery, this is the perfect region for alpine birds. A nice area close to Interlaken is desribed here (all in easy reach with public transport): https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Niederhorn

Berlin's parks should be good for Goshawks and other more common birds.

Montellier is close to the Camargue (e.g. St. Marie de la Mer or Aigues Mortes), with flamingos and plenty of other water birds. Not sure how good public tansport works there, but should be doable I think.
 
In Berlin it is a little bit a question of how much time you can be spending on birding.
Public Transport will give you the option to reeach basically everything in berlin and in its surroundings. If you have this time, there are several really good areas, which host a large amount of species.
I would recommend the "Moorlinse" in Buch, which is near to a Trainstation.
In May you should get a variety of Reedbirds +several more common species.
If you have some target birds in mind we can suggest some areas for it.
If you want to invest less time, you should definetly go to the Tiergarten and maybe even combine it with a visit to the Berlin Zoo, which is located very centered.
Some species which are rather difficult to find directly inside the cities which are reasonably common there are
Common Redstart, Goshawk, Icterine Warbler and Common Nightingale.
 
Last edited:
Regarding Dublin by public transport, the easiest way to get around is using the local Metro system (known as the DART) which runs every 10-15 minutes along the Dublin coast through the day. There is an e-ticket system called Leap which is quite useful if switching between DART and Dublin Bus. Interesting birding sites along the DART line:

(1) Howth Harbour (terminus of DART) has the usual gulls and there are usually a few Black Guillemots in the harbour. The nearby island (Ireland's Eye) has breeding Gannet which are easily seen even with bins. There are boat tours around Ireland's Eye which give you a good chance of seeing Puffin, Kittiwake, auks (Guillemot/Murre and Razorbill). Alternatively, walk along Howth Head to view breeding colonies of seabirds (Kittiwake, Shag, auks).

(2) Phoenix Park is good for woodland breeding birds including Jay & Treecreeper, but covers a vast area. The woods around the American Ambassadors Residence are reliable for both. Dublin Zoo is also well worth a visit.

(3) Booterstown Marsh is a small wetland beside the DART line, which in spring should have Black-tailed Godwits + Greenshank and other commoner species. The mudflats across the railway should have Knot, Dunlin, Bar-tailed Godwit etc.

(4) Coliemore Harbour, about 10 mins walk from Dalkey DART Station, has a small breeding colony of Common and Arctic Terns. Sandwich and Roseate Terns are regularly seen here. In the evenings and early mornings, there is usually a good passage of Manx Shearwaters. Extended seawatching can produce Storm Petrel, skuas etc, and is best either on calm very misty mornings or in strong SE winds.

(5) Kilcoole is a small village about 30km south of Dublin which can be reached by Dublin Bus #84 from Blackrock DART Station. The coastal marshes hold a good variety of species, including breeding Sedge and Reed Warblers, and Little Tern.

(6) Pushing the boat out, Tacumshin is one of the best birding sites in Ireland and is doable in a day trip. Take the train to Rosslare Europort (about 2.5 hours) and then a taxi to Sigginstown Lane. The wetland has many migrant waders and other breeding wetland birds.

Let me know if you want any more details.
 
From Berlin Havelland river and lake area are excellent.
Target areas are lake Gülper See, river Havel and Great Bustard Area Buckow, Nennhausen. This is reachable by train from Berlin. But bike is recommended, because is huge area.
White tailed Eagle is almost 100 % guarranty.


In the map is marked with 2 and 4
http://www.birdinggermany.de/brandenburg.htm

If you come from Copenhagen via ferry to Rostock, I can give you aeras for very high chance of Trush Nightingale and for Lesser spotted Eagle.

Check also
https://www.ornitho.de/index.php?m_id=1&langu=en
 
Last edited:
Birding around Amsterdam is very well covered on waarneming.nl
It may be better to prepare a wishlist and check elastically what is where few days before.
 
In Barcelona I found Guell Park the best of the 3 mains park near the centre (had hoopoe, Firecrest and a few of the commoner warblers in march I expect more would around later in the year) though the port can be good as well
 
I used to visit Paris frequently when my partner lived there - the central part of the city (i.e. arrondissements within the Peripherique (ring road)) is very heavily built up, with relatively few parks and open spaces, and correspondingly few birds. If you happen to land here first, then of course species such as common blackbird and black-headed gull will be new to you.

The Bois de Boulogne is located just west of the Peripherique, and is accessible by Metro with a short walk. I've seen green woodpecker and ring-necked parakeet here. In the south, Parc de Sceaux is easily accessible on the RER railway, and has more parakeets and a lake which may be worth checking out. Being a capital city, Paris is of course a transport hub, so a day trip a little further out may be productive, such as along the Seine valley. Places like Giverny (for impressionist painter fans) are accessible by rail (Vernon station, then hire a bike) and get you out into a more rural / wooded / riverside setting - a little closer in towards Paris, I've had displaying goshawk near La Roche Guyon, a really attractive village on the Seine (although I drove here, not sure what the public transport access is like).

In contrast, London has more parkland close to the city centre - Hyde Park / Kensington Gardens will get you good close-up views of common European birds, habituated to human presence, including species like treecreeper and little owl which can be more difficult in a rural setting; lots of (tickable, naturalised) ring-necked parakeets - just be careful with listing the exotic waterfowl...I don't live near London, so others will give you much better info on this city.
 
Looking at this from a full trip perspective, the following day trips at each city would get a fairly decent European list.

-Dublin: Full day along the coast for seabirds that would be unlikely elsewhere, including Gannet, Shag and auks.

-London: Tricky. My personal choice to maximise list length would be day trip to the Brecks for Stone-curlew, Woodlark and Bittern which may be tricky at other sites.

-Amsterdam: Morning at Vondelpark looking for parakeets, with the afternoon at a wetland site for Purple Heron, Spoonbill and Avocet.

-Paris: My preference would be for the Fountainebleau Forest for woodpeckers (Grey-headed & Black) and Bonelli'sWarbler.

-Berlin: A day trip to Mueritz National Park for Barred Warbler, Red-backed Shrike, White-tailed Eagle, Osprey and Goldeneye

-Copenhagen: Maybe a day trip to Falsterbo for migrant birds of prey and Eider.

-Prague: Probably spend some time looking for Syrian Woodpecker in city parks. Possibly Collare Flycatcher in surrounding countryside?

-Budapest: Easy choice - arrange for a day tour of the Hortobagy. Bustards, birds of prey (including Saker), wetland birds.

-Rome: Not sure this will much to species list.

-Interlaken: Probably best to take cable car to one of the higher mountains for high altitude species (Alpine Chough, Snowfinch, Alpine Accentor).

-Nice: Mornig birding the Var Estuary, and possibly looking at arranging for a day trip to Mercantour National Park?

-Montpellier: May be worth looking at doing a days guided birding around the Camargue? This post mentions a guide: https://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=3107296&postcount=2.

-Barcelona: A day trip to Belchite and the Aragonese plains could add Dupont's Lark, sandgrouse, vultures and a few other specialities.


I think 200 to 240 species would be possible with a bit of luck. For even more species, probably substituting Dubrovnik for Rome (eastern Mediterranean species), and Vienna for Prague (Lake Neusiedl and Marchegg) would increase possible species list.
 
I guess the kind of advice you need will depend on whether your trip will be: a) visiting city sites for general tourism with non-birding companion(s), or b) able to arrange full days birding at the best sites near the cities mentioned. Two very different things.
 
Last edited:
Nutcracker said:
Seem to be forgetting:

;)
Click to expand...

Having visited almost all of the cities mentioned in the opening post by public transport in the last few years, all of that itineray is doable by public transport.

Arranging guided day trips (e.g. the Hortobagy) would also be pretty straightforward and I am sure the guides will have their own cars?
 
Ernest Garcia said:
Two excellent places to visit that are easily accessible by public transport are the London Wetland Centre and, in Barcelona, the Llobregat delta.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll definitely have to check those spots out! For Llobregat Delta there appears to be two sites of the same name on each side of the airport. Is one of them better or would they have similar birds?

StuartReeves said:
This page of the Birdforum Opus gives a useful, and in my experience accurate, account of the best birding sites around Copenhagen, including public transport links.
Click to expand...

A couple of those sites are relatively close to where I'm staying. Thanks! :)

dalat said:
With a couple of days in Interlaken, I hope you don't stay in the town all the time but go up into the mountains. Besides the scenery, this is the perfect region for alpine birds. A nice area close to Interlaken is desribed here (all in easy reach with public transport): https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Niederhorn

Berlin's parks should be good for Goshawks and other more common birds.

Montellier is close to the Camargue (e.g. St. Marie de la Mer or Aigues Mortes), with flamingos and plenty of other water birds. Not sure how good public tansport works there, but should be doable I think.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the great info! Do you think I'd have a good chance of alpine birds on the way up Jungfrau? Or is Neiderhorn better overall?

Dortmundbirder said:
In Berlin it is a little bit a question of how much time you can be spending on birding.
Public Transport will give you the option to reeach basically everything in berlin and in its surroundings. If you have this time, there are several really good areas, which host a large amount of species.
I would recommend the "Moorlinse" in Buch, which is near to a Trainstation.
In May you should get a variety of Reedbirds +several more common species.
If you have some target birds in mind we can suggest some areas for it.
If you want to invest less time, you should definetly go to the Tiergarten and maybe even combine it with a visit to the Berlin Zoo, which is located very centered.
Some species which are rather difficult to find directly inside the cities which are reasonably common there are
Common Redstart, Goshawk, Icterine Warbler and Common Nightingale.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the great info, very much appreciated! :)

andyadcock said:
This is worth having and it covers several of your destinations.

https://www.nhbs.com/where-to-watch-birds-in-world-cities-book

Cities covered

Auckland
Bangkok
Barcelona
Beijing
Berlin
Boston
Budapest
Buenos Aires
Cairo
Cape Town
Dublin
Honolulu
London
Mexico City
Moscow
New Delhi
New York
Paris
Rio de Janeiro
Rome
Seattle
Sydney
Tokyo
Vienna

Cheaper here

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-l...p_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=&sr=
Click to expand...

Awesome, thanks for the links :)

Captain_of_Crunch said:
Regarding Dublin by public transport, the easiest way to get around is using the local Metro system (known as the DART) which runs every 10-15 minutes along the Dublin coast through the day. There is an e-ticket system called Leap which is quite useful if switching between DART and Dublin Bus. Interesting birding sites along the DART line:

(1) Howth Harbour (terminus of DART) has the usual gulls and there are usually a few Black Guillemots in the harbour. The nearby island (Ireland's Eye) has breeding Gannet which are easily seen even with bins. There are boat tours around Ireland's Eye which give you a good chance of seeing Puffin, Kittiwake, auks (Guillemot/Murre and Razorbill). Alternatively, walk along Howth Head to view breeding colonies of seabirds (Kittiwake, Shag, auks).

(2) Phoenix Park is good for woodland breeding birds including Jay & Treecreeper, but covers a vast area. The woods around the American Ambassadors Residence are reliable for both. Dublin Zoo is also well worth a visit.

(3) Booterstown Marsh is a small wetland beside the DART line, which in spring should have Black-tailed Godwits + Greenshank and other commoner species. The mudflats across the railway should have Knot, Dunlin, Bar-tailed Godwit etc.

(4) Coliemore Harbour, about 10 mins walk from Dalkey DART Station, has a small breeding colony of Common and Arctic Terns. Sandwich and Roseate Terns are regularly seen here. In the evenings and early mornings, there is usually a good passage of Manx Shearwaters. Extended seawatching can produce Storm Petrel, skuas etc, and is best either on calm very misty mornings or in strong SE winds.

(5) Kilcoole is a small village about 30km south of Dublin which can be reached by Dublin Bus #84 from Blackrock DART Station. The coastal marshes hold a good variety of species, including breeding Sedge and Reed Warblers, and Little Tern.

(6) Pushing the boat out, Tacumshin is one of the best birding sites in Ireland and is doable in a day trip. Take the train to Rosslare Europort (about 2.5 hours) and then a taxi to Sigginstown Lane. The wetland has many migrant waders and other breeding wetland birds.

Let me know if you want any more details.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the great locations and distances! :)

albatross02 said:
From Berlin Havelland river and lake area are excellent.
Target areas are lake Gülper See, river Havel and Great Bustard Area Buckow, Nennhausen. This is reachable by train from Berlin. But bike is recommended, because is huge area.
White tailed Eagle is almost 100 % guarranty.


In the map is marked with 2 and 4
http://www.birdinggermany.de/brandenburg.htm

If you come from Copenhagen via ferry to Rostock, I can give you aeras for very high chance of Trush Nightingale and for Lesser spotted Eagle.

Check also
https://www.ornitho.de/index.php?m_id=1&langu=en
Click to expand...

Thanks for the great tips! Unfortunately I don't think I'm taking that ferry.

jurek said:
Birding around Amsterdam is very well covered on waarneming.nl
It may be better to prepare a wishlist and check elastically what is where few days before.
Click to expand...

Perfect! I can use this as my target list starts to narrow down when I get closer to Amsterdam. :)

a_j_steele said:
In Barcelona I found Guell Park the best of the 3 mains park near the centre (had hoopoe, Firecrest and a few of the commoner warblers in march I expect more would around later in the year) though the port can be good as well
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, appreciate it! :)

kb57 said:
I used to visit Paris frequently when my partner lived there - the central part of the city (i.e. arrondissements within the Peripherique (ring road)) is very heavily built up, with relatively few parks and open spaces, and correspondingly few birds. If you happen to land here first, then of course species such as common blackbird and black-headed gull will be new to you.

The Bois de Boulogne is located just west of the Peripherique, and is accessible by Metro with a short walk. I've seen green woodpecker and ring-necked parakeet here. In the south, Parc de Sceaux is easily accessible on the RER railway, and has more parakeets and a lake which may be worth checking out. Being a capital city, Paris is of course a transport hub, so a day trip a little further out may be productive, such as along the Seine valley. Places like Giverny (for impressionist painter fans) are accessible by rail (Vernon station, then hire a bike) and get you out into a more rural / wooded / riverside setting - a little closer in towards Paris, I've had displaying goshawk near La Roche Guyon, a really attractive village on the Seine (although I drove here, not sure what the public transport access is like).

In contrast, London has more parkland close to the city centre - Hyde Park / Kensington Gardens will get you good close-up views of common European birds, habituated to human presence, including species like treecreeper and little owl which can be more difficult in a rural setting; lots of (tickable, naturalised) ring-necked parakeets - just be careful with listing the exotic waterfowl...I don't live near London, so others will give you much better info on this city.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to see much in Paris, but those parks look promising. Are the Little Owls in Hyde Park conspicuous or is more effort demanded?

Larry Sweetland said:
I guess the kind of advice you need will depend on whether your trip will be: a) visiting city sites for general tourism with non-birding companion(s), or b) able to arrange full days birding at the best sites near the cities mentioned. Two very different things.
Click to expand...

Yes, I will be visiting with non-birding companions so I won't be able to make day trips for birding (with the possible exceptions of Interlaken and Montpellier). Although, they understand that birding is important to me so I will be able to slip away for half days occasionally.
 
Caon said:
Thanks for the great info! Do you think I'd have a good chance of alpine birds on the way up Jungfrau? Or is Neiderhorn better overall?
Click to expand...

Hi, if you go straight up to Jungfraujoch, you won't see much. But if you make a stop on the way at Kleine Scheidegg, and do some hiking around there, you should also see some mountain birds.
 
Depending on how much time you want to invest in days out, for someone visiting London and wanting to go birding my advice would be to take the High Speed Train out of St Pancras and visit the North Kent Coast.

Oare Marshes would be my personal pick as its a lot less hassle to get to than the alternatives and I would say is probably the best site for waders I've been to - seen 15+ waders there, and a strong selection of raptors and owls, though you'd probably want to check reports for it on the dates you are going to get a more accurate feel.
 
dalat said:
Hi, if you go straight up to Jungfraujoch, you won't see much. But if you make a stop on the way at Kleine Scheidegg, and do some hiking around there, you should also see some mountain birds.
Click to expand...
White-winged Snowfinch would presumably be best at the top station though?
 
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