Sabbatical Jaer

2025-05-19

Birds of Bulgaria

This is an archival post of the various birds I've spotted an managed to photograph. My personal bird collection :)

Grey heron

Next to fishing pond, close to Razgrad. Great time for the swallow to pass by. An interesting occurrence. Grey herrons always seem a bit cold, sad, and wet.

Wood warbler

Burgas, next to the pink baths. Very cute little furry ball.

Barn swallow

In the morning, next to the Danube, close to Russe, I ran into these swallows. You can look at them for hours. Very playful little chappies.

I love this composition!

Barn swallow and red rumped swallow

European Red rumped swallow

This buddy was hanging out with all the barn swallows. I didn't even notice him until I started going through the pictures afterwards. Next to the Danube, Russe.

Stork

In the North of Bulgaria we ran into many storks. Seeing these birds in the wild was pretty magnificent. They have a beautiful silhouette when they fly and their colour pallet is just outright iconic. They've recently been reintroduced into the Netherlands, but when I was growing up they were a rare sighting. Their abundance in Bulgaria was magnificent. We had fortune on our side as we were able to spot many young ones too. They have a preference to make nests close to human activity, as we noticed in all the small villages. That's why I think it's nice to include a few pictures 'in context'.

Cuckoo

Found this cuckoo at the top of the Kom peak in Western Bulgaria. He notified us with his distinct call and then posed on this route pole for a while. The colour of the pole matches nicely with his eye patch. I didn't know they hung their wings like this, it's quite a remarkable posture.

House sparrow

The following pictures were taking in Бързия (Barzia) in the Montana region of North-West Bulgaria. I believe all pictures are the same bird, she had a little nest on the campsite where we were staying.

House sparrow

Who guards the guards?

Dreams of flight

Tree creeper

Great spotted woodpecker

Nut hatch

Great egret

Common redstart

I believe this might be a picture of the female common redstart. So not the vibrant black and red male, but I do remember seeing a bit of rust-colour apearing when she flew away, so I think it might've been a female common redstart.

Crested Lark

Absolutely loved seeing these little fellows racing over the beach. Really fun sight. Very active.

Kingfisher

Spotted this fella on our first night on Lake Kerkini. I didn't have my DSLR on me, so shot a picture with my iPhone. Needless to say, it turned out crap. It was amazing and enchanting to see this bright flash of blue appear, but I was also a bit bumped out that I didn't manage to catch him on camera.

Fortunately I got a retry, as one hour later, whilst having dinner at the restaurant 500m away from the lake, the kingfisher appeared again! This time I managed to catch it. Knowing that Kingfishers are territorial hunters, we set off early morning to check the same stick in the water where we had spotted the Kingfisher first. And lo-and-behold, he turned up again! This time I was prepared and got some pictures. Still not great pictures, but better than the 2 pixels that the iPhone granted me.

Kingfisher at the pond of the restaurant

Poor image of the infamous blue flash

Damatian Pelican

Great big bird. Cool to have seen in real life, but we didn't get to get very close. Would love to see them from up close one day. I've heard to do bird tours by boat on Lake Kerkini, so might have to return. This one was strategically hanging out at the place the local fishermen were chilling too.

Greater flamingo

Not a great picture, but checked off nonetheless.

Little owl

This tiny fella seemed a big grumpy. But very cute nonetheless.

Eurasian griffon vulture

We stayed a couple of days at the vulture center int he Rhodopes mountains. Unfortunately the weather was very bad, so the vultures didn't come out. On our last day, the vultures were flying out in a big group and we managed to snap some pictures. It was magnificent to see them in all their might. On a good day (in May) you'll be able to spot Egyptian vultures, Eurasian Griffon, and Cinereous vulture here. There might've been some in the big group we saw flying overhead, but we couldn't really distinguish them.

The following birds I have not identified yet, but deserve an honorable mention until I identify them.