Slobodan Kulic Children birding at a EuroBirdwatch 2005 event in Serbia and Montenegro Zoom In

Record numbers for EuroBirdwatch 2005

04-10-2005

Almost 40,000 people took part in BirdLife International’s EuroBirdwatch 2005 last weekend (1-2 October). During the pan-European event, around three million birds were observed. Based on initial reports, the event looks set to have exceeded all previous records in terms of the numbers of participants involved and birds seen.

EuroBirdwatch is BirdLife International’s annual festival of events which invites members of the public from all over Europe, to get out, observe, explore and enjoy birds. This year’s event carried a special theme – Take a closer look at the countryside.

BirdLife Partners in 35 European countries held a total of around 1,400 national events. The wide variety of activities across the continent included bird watching excursions, special bird watching events on organic farms, contests for children on identifying birds by their song, bird fairs and excursions to watch birds in national parks.

"Organisations in countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Serbia and Montenegro, Estonia and Lithuania have joined the EuroBirdwatch this year and bird watching activities took place over a huge area across Europe." —Eray Caglayan, Doga Dernegi (BirdLife in Turkey)

Highlights in terms of species include observations of the globally threatened Lesser Kestrel Falco naumanni in Armenia, where Red-fronted Serin Serinus pusillus was also seen. Observers in Andorra watched a Common Buzzard Buteo buteo eating a snake, whilst in Slovakia, an Osprey Pandion haliaetus was the highlight for many bird watchers.

Although the results are still coming in, adding further to the totals, the initial EuroBirdwatch 2005 statistics show that:

• The country with largest number of events was Hungary where 160 events were organised
• The country with most participants was Spain where 22,500 participants were involved.
• The country with the largest number of birds seen was Sweden where 788,620 birds were counted
• The country with the most diverse bird list was Sweden where 259 species were observed

The most frequently observed species were:

1. Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris
2. Common Coot Fulica atra
3. Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs

Eray Caglayan from Doga Dernegi (BirdLife in Turkey), which coordinated this year’s event was delighted with the results. "EuroBirdwatch 2005 has been a resounding success and demonstrates people’s growing fascination and interest in birds. This is such a great network that millions of people from all over Europe are becoming one body for birds," he commented.