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C. H. Sekercioglu, Living Bird Winter 2006: 14-23
FIRST TURKISH BIRDING TOUR BREAKS A RECORD
276 SPECIES IN THREE WEEKS
Highlights: Arctic Loon, Cory's Shearwater, Yelkovan (Levantine) Shearwater, Dalmatian Pelican, Pygmy Cormorant, Black Stork, Marbled Teal, Ferruginous Pochard, White-headed Duck, Lammergeier, Cinereous and Griffon Vultures, Imperial and Bonelli's Eagles, Lesser Kestrel, Lanner Falcon, Caucasian Grouse, Caspian Snowcock, See-see Partridge, Black Francolin, Demoseille Crane, Great Bustard, Cream-colored Courser, Terek and Broad-billed Sandpipers, Auduoin and Caspian Gulls, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Pallid Scops and Tawny Owls, White-throated (Smyrna) Kingfisher, Middle Spotted and White-backed Woodpeckers, Desert and Bimaculated Larks, Citrine Wagtail, White-spectacled Bulbul, Alpine and Radde's Accentors,Graceful Prinia, Mountain Chiffchaff, Moustached, Paddyfield, Caspian Reed, Marsh, Upcher's, Olive-tree, Eastern Bonelli's, Green, Eastern Orphean, Barred, Rueppell's, and Menetries' Warblers, White-throated Irania, Finsch's and Persian Wheatears, Bearded Reedling, Kruper's and Persian Nuthatches, Wallcreeper, Masked Shrike, Yellow-billed Chough, Rosy Starling, Spanish, Dead Sea, Yellow-throated and Hill Sparrows, White-winged Snowfinch, (Caucasian) Twite, Crimson-winged, Mongolian, Trumpeter, and Desert Finches, Gray-hooded, Cinereous, Cretzschmar's and Black-headed Buntings
Dr. Cagan H. Sekercioglu, avian ecologist, conservationist, tropical biologist, photographer, and ecotourism expert at Stanford University Center for Conservation Biology, organized and led with Soner Bekir, one of Turkey's leading birdwatchers, Turkey's first and most comprehensive birdwatching tour between May 27-June 19 2005. The tour took place in collaboration with Biyotematur, with the logistical help of Funda Ozevin and Ismet Aydogdu. Eight participants from Canada, Great Britain, and USA contributed approximately 30,000 dollars to Turkey's economy and to the environmental programs of TEMA.
The tour participants were among the world's most experienced birders, collectively having visited over 100 countries and having seen more than 70% of world's bird species. Nevertheless, each still managed to see 50 to 98 species s/he had not seen before. Birdwatchers said that they had not expected Turkey to be so diverse and stated that Turkey was one of the best countries they had visited.
In this adventure-filled tour that visited the best natural areas all over Turkey from Urfa's deserts to Antalya's forests, from Kackar Mountains to Van Lake marshes, the 276 birds species seen was also a Turkey birdwatching tour record. This number, attained in approximately three weeks, constitutes 60% of all bird species ever recorded in Turkey and roughly 75% of non-vagrant bird species that are regularly seen in the country.
Thanks to their dedication, everybody saw some of the rarest and most attractive birds in Turkey such as Cream-colored Courser, Mongolian Finch, Paddyfield Warbler, Grey-necked Bunting, Wallcreeper, Caucasian Grouse, Caucasian Chiffchaff, Lammergeier, Broad-billed Sandpiper, Demoseille Crane, Dalmatian Pelican, Terek Sandpiper, Great Bustard, and Caspian Snowcock in three weeks, sometimes with the help of local guides such as Mustafa Sari and Hasan Safak.
The tour was widely covered in the Turkish press and the great success of the tour led Doga Dernegi, the Turkish partner of BirdLife International, to hire Soner Bekir to establish their non-profit birding division, whose proceeds will go to bird conservation programmes. We are pleased to announce that Turkish birding tourism is off to a great start...
Turkish bird list based on 90,000+ observations.
