From John I learned that Serbia is becoming a birding hot-spot!
Two species of pelicans (Pelecanus crispus and Pelecanus onocrotalus), which used to nest in Serbia before but were driven out by draining of marshland for agriculture in the late 19th century, are back (not nesting yet, but some individuals are back) and you can see a picture of one of them here.
A journalist for 'Birdwatch' magazine went to the very first birding tour in Serbia back in 2004 and he wrote about his trip and his impressions.
This website provides a lot more information about birds and birding in Serbia. I wish that information was available to me when I was a kid living there. I went to several of the places mentioned there and I saw the birds, but I was never with anyone who knew how to identify them. There is still time to go back and do this....
Comments
That last site also indicates that one can see Coypu aka Nutria in the wild there. I knew there were fur/meat farms of nutria there, but was not aware that there were some roaming wild. Perhaps the nutria farming industry failed during the 1990s sanctions and the animals were let loose.
Posted by: coturnix | June 2, 2007 4:02 PM
Vojvodina has very developed birder culture, therefore is not surprising that Ciconia society has number of members. Younger birders' society, League for Ornithological Action of Serbia (and Montenegro at the time when founded), with members active in both societies, has very efficient mailing list, and due to that results are really good. It is in near future that both societies are going to be gathered under the name ORNISS, as official BirdLife International partner (more on that at www.ptica.org). I think that number of young active people gathered around society are accountable for great results in collecting bird data, protection of birds and their habitats, making artificial nests and nestig boxes etc.
Anyway, very nice to have good news from Serbia :D
Posted by: Tanja Sova | June 3, 2007 10:26 AM
see also this on birding in serbia in april 2007
http://www.birdtours.co.uk/tripreports/serbia/Serbia-6/serbia-april-2007.htm
Posted by: dragan simic | September 5, 2007 5:56 AM
Please check the extensive collection of wildlife and landscape photos and plenty of data on Serbian nature at
http://www.wild-serbia.com/home.html
Posted by: Wild Serbia | September 6, 2008 8:42 PM