• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Where premium quality meets exceptional value. ZEISS Conquest HDX.

Good birding in/around eastern European cities? (1 Viewer)

Winterdune

Well-known member
Hi all,

In the interests of cutting carbon emissions (and having an adventure) I and a couple of friends have bought interrail tickets (senior versions!) and are planning to visit 3 or 4 eastern European cities (Sofia is definitely one) at some point this year.

I've done a lot of birding in Asia, Australasia and the Americas, but much less in Europe, despite living here! Consequently I have quite a big list of European birds I've never seen.

Although our interrail adventure will not primarily be a birding trip, I'd definitely like to see one or two of the species on the list if at all possible!

So my question is which cities should we go to (and when)?

Ideally the birding sites need to be within the cities, or easily accessible by public transport on a day trip (or a two day trip at most). If there's an absolutely amazing, not-to-be-missed site that is hard to get to, but where I could see lots of my targets, then I wouldn't be averse to hiring a car for a couple of days for it.

Any suggestions are very welcome! I'll post my 'target' list below. It's all of the European spp I haven't seen, so I'm aware that loads of them are out of the question in eastern Europe.

Many thanks,
Sean
 
The list (which included some spp I'm rather embarrassed about never having seen 😳😊):

King Eider
Steller's Eider
Yelkouan Shearwater
Scopoli's Shearwater
Storm Petrel
Pygmy Cormorant
Great White Pelican
Dalmatian Pelican
Little Bittern
Demoiselle Crane
Levant Sparrowhawk
Steppe Buzzard
Greater Spotted Eagle
Lesser Spotted Eagle
Steppe Eagle
Eastern Imperial Eagle
Eleonora's Falcon
Lanner Falcon
Saker Falcon
Little Crake
Baillon's Crake
Barbary Partridge
Hazel Grouse
Willow Grouse
Black-winged Pratincole
Spur-winged Lapwing
Great Snipe
Heuglin's Gull
Armenian Gull
Brunnich's Guillemot
Laughing Dove
Tengmalm's Owl
Cyprus Scops Owl
Eurasian Pygmy Owl
Northern Hawk Owl
Snowy Owl
Brown Fish Owl
Eurasian Eagle Owl
Great Grey Owl
Ural Owl
Red-necked Nightjar
Plain Swift
White-rumped Swift
Pied Kingfisher
Blue-cheeked Bee-eater
Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker
Syrian Woodpecker
White-backed Woodpecker
Lilford's Woodpecker
Siberian Jay
Alpine Chough
Penduline Tit
Azure Tit
Sombre Tit
Siberian Tit
Dupont's Lark
Bimaculated Lark
Mediterranean Short-toed Lark
Turkestan Short-toed Lark
Caucasian Horned Lark
River Warbler
Lanceolated Warbler
Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler
Paddyfield Warbler
Delicate Prinia
Western Olivaceous Warbler
Upcher's Warbler
Olive-tree Warbler
Green Warbler
Iberian Chiffchaff
Mountain Chiffchaff
Western Subalpine Warbler
Moltoni's Warbler
Menetrie's Warbler
Western Orphean Warbler
Eastern Orphean Warbler
Kruper's Nuthatch
Corsican Nuthatch
Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin
White-throated Robin
Pied Wheatear
Western Black-eared Wheatear
Finsch's Wheatear
Mediterranean Flycatcher
Semicollared Flycatcher
Citrine Wagtail
Italian Sparrow
Dead Sea Sparrow
Pale Rockfinch
Red-fronted Serin
Citril Finch
Corsican Finch
Two-barred Crossbill
Pine Grosbeak
Asian Crimson-winged Finch
Cinereous Bunting
Black-headed Bunting
 
Hiya Sean,

Happy new year! How about Tallinn? I've not been, but within a relatively short distance you could get Stella's Eider, woodpeckers and Owls, ebird would confirm stuff like Siberian Jay etc.

Some of the eastern med stuff can be done quite easily around Thessaloniki (a host of passerines, pygmy cormorant, spur winged lapwing, raptors etc) if you want any specific information about that area let me know.
 
Warsaw has Little Bittern, Syrian Woodpecker, Penduline Tit and River Warbler accessible by city buses. But if you go NW for a day with a car (preferably a weekend with overnighting in a local homestay) you get to Biebrza and Białowieża with owls, all European woodpeckers, both spotted eagles, waders etc.
 
Bucharest: Syrian woodpecker in city parks
Ljubljana: Great spotted, Middle spotted, Black woodpecker + Grey-headed woodpecker in city park
 
It is many, many years since I went there, but Lake Neusiedl is accessible by rail from Vienna and may give you Syrian Woodpecker, Lesser Spotted Eagle and Penduline Tit.
I guess from there you could head for Hungary and potential Saker Falcon sites somewhere like Hortobagy (which I believe has a train station), but this is stretching the definition of city birding somewhat.
 
Saker maybe nice in Lonsko Polje national parc 120 km from Zagreb.
Syrian woodpecker very good chance.
I saw 8 different woodpeckers in 2,5 h hike.

Maybe Batumi also an option, but is already Asia.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top