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For Google's translation of this website into Greek click here: Birdwing in Greek

New!!!
Children's bird book in Greek now available. See the Birdwing books page.

Squacco Heron

Welcome to BirdWING!

BirdWING (BirdWatching In Northern Greece) has been set up to raise awareness of birds in Greece and to raise money for the conservation and restoration of bird habitat in the region. Birdwing has about 400 members from all over the world.

The BirdWING book, 'Birdwatching in Northern Greece', has detailed information about birds and birdwatching in the region, with up-to-date maps and site info and can be ordered from this website. All money raised from the book goes to bird conservation in Greece.

Why not join us? It's free, you will receive regular newsletters about what's happening in the area and what's been seen, and you'll be helping birds in Greece by adding to our 'voice'.

Winner of the Photo Competition

Winner of the Birdwing Wildbird Photo Competition!

Congratulations to Konstantinos Stafylidis who took this fantastic photo of a Wryneck (Jynx torquilla) in Alykes Kitrous (Near Korinos) in Northern Greece during April last year.

This was the unanimous winner of the competition, with the judges particularly commenting on the sharpness of the subject and composition of the picture as a whole. Click on the photo to enlarge it!

Runner Up

Konstantinos beat off stiff competition from many quality entries and will be receiving the prize of the Bushnell 10x32 Powerview (Roof prism) binoculars and a copy of Ο παιδικός οδηγός για τα πουλιά της Ελλάδας (The Children's Guide to Birds of Greece) shortly.

The Runner up is Peter Giay for his excellent photo of a Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) taken at Lake Kerkini last October.

Also commended

Also commended: Michalis Kotsakis's shot of a Kestrel and Hooded Crow,
Roy Clarke's Temmincks Stint, Mel Greenhalgh's Squacco Heron, Roger Butt's Long-legged Buzzard, Doug McCutcheon's Little Owl, Gordon Ramel's Lapwing and Johannes Laber's Little Owl.


Thank you to all who entered and for all donations to Birdwing. Money raised from this competition will be used to build tern rafts at Lake Kerkini.
Find out more in our next newsletter.

Black-eared Wheatear

Latest sightings - Winter 09/10

• Kerkini - December counts show 15,000 Pochard with a few Tufted and Ferruginous mixed in, 74 Goldeneye and smallish numbers of the other regular ducks. And plenty of eagles - 11 Spotteds, 3 Golden and 4 White-tailed. Ten Black Storks and 5 Great Grey Shrikes complete the picture.
• Evros Delta -Wildfowl numbers are building, with 188 Bewick's and 219 Whooper swans arriving, 1555 Pintail, 6875 Wigeon, 10 000 Teal and 80 Ruddy Shelduck. The first group of White-fronts arrived on the 5th November, reaching 4000 on 18th January, sharing the lakes with 435 Flamingoes, 47 Great White Egrets, 60 Pygmy Cormorants and 164 Dalmatian Pelicans. 22 Spotted Eagles joined a visiting Golden, three Imperials and five White-tails. 440 Red-breasted Geese and 22 Lesser White-fronts arrived in January. A Long-legged and a Rough-leggged Buzzard were also present amongst the 54 Common Buzzards. As of the 25th February recent floods are receding in the western part of the delta allowing limited access. Bewick's numbers have continued to build, with 2250 counted on the 20th and a Steppe Eagle was seen on the 23rd.
  
• Porto Lagos - December - 1050 Dalmatian Pelicans and 31 Black-throated Divers on Lake Vistonas. February - over 100 Little Gulls, 1000 Flamingos, 4 Mergansers, 8 Whooper Swans, Slender-billed Gull
  
  Spring is coming!

  The first pioneers of spring have already arrived on the Evros Delta, with 21 Garganey, 37 Ferruginous Duck, 750 Little Gull and a Lesser-spotted Eagle on March 3rd.

Yellow Wagtail

The birds of Northern Greece

Kerkini in spring

There are some fantastic places to come birdwatching in Northern Greece, including the unique Dadia forest and the wetlands of Lake Kerkini and the Evros delta.

If you have never been birdwatching in Northern Greece, consider this: where else in Europe could you see…

• hundreds of White and Dalmatian Pelicans
• thousands of Pygmy Cormorants and Greater Flamingos
• White-tailed, Imperial, Spotted, Lesser-spotted, Golden, Booted and Short-toed Eagles
• Lanner, Saker, Lesser Kestrel, Eleonora’s and Red-footed Falcons
• Black, Griffon and Egyptian Vultures
• Long-legged and Honey Buzzards
• Goshawk and Levant's Sparrowhawk
• four species of shrike breed in Northern Greece, as do eight species of owl. Five species of flycatcher can be found
• nine species of woodpecker are resident and Isabelline Wheatear and Spur-winged Plover are regular breeders
• over 100 000 duck winter on the Evros Delta, with Lesser-white Fronted and Red-breasted Geese
• in Dadia Forest 36 species of raptor have been recorded, and 20 breed
• in 2008 a single eagle roost in Northern Greece held 47 Spotted Eagles and 2 Eastern Imperial Eagles

Ferruginous Duck

The future

Many of the sites are under threat. Continued land reclamation, drainage, illegal building, over-grazing and a serious lack of political will towards the environment all continue to have damaging effects. In addition, at certain sites, like the Evros Delta, hunting pressure is intense.

WE NEED TO BRING PRESSURE TO BEAR FOR THEIR PROTECTION NOW!!!

The aims of Birdwing are:

• to raise awareness of issues affecting birds in Northern Greece
• to raise money for direct habitat improvement to help birds whose habitats are at risk
• to build a membership with a collective voice on conservation issues

Join us today to help make a difference. Go on, show you care.

NEWS!!

In June Birdwing prompted a question to be asked in the European Parliament regarding the state of the Evros Delta. An extract from the answer is given below:
Following an application by the Commission, the Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled recently against Greece concerning the lack of a coherent, specific and complete legal regime ensuring the sustainable management and effective protection of its Special Protection Areas. In that context the Commission will now assess the adequacy of measures taken or to be taken by Greece in order to comply with the ECJ ruling, including the protection regime for the SPA ‘Evros Delta’.

Birdwing will continue to pursue this matter.

Birdwing on Greek TV
Following our finding of a shot Osprey at the Evros Delta we wrote to various organisations in Greece, including the local Prefecture of Evros, the Forestry and the Hunting Association. There has been significant reaction to this, culminating in our being interviewed for the Greek TV channel ET3. A report appeared on all their news programmes on October 21st. The Hunting Association has also put up a 10 000 euro reward for information leading to a conviction, which, we are told, is the first time this has happened.

For more information see the article on our downloads page.