We have just finished a 4-week birding trip to Turkey, Cyprus and Greece. Having birded a lot in Europe and Asia, this trip was an excuse to look for some of the specialist species we hadn’t seen before and meet up with friends and family along the way.

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Our itinerary took us from Vancouver to Istanbul and on to Izmir (Kruper’s Nuthatch, Thrush Nightingale) and to Lake Ac?g?l (Cretzschar’s Bunting) before heading towards Kalikan (Ruppell’s Warbler, Eastern Black-eared Wheatear). From there on to Side (Delicate Prinia, Levant’s Sparrowhawk, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler) and the Oymapinar Dam (Pied Wheatear). A short visit to Cyprus was specifically for the endemics, we dipped on Cyprus Scops Owl but got the other two, Cyprus Wheatear and Cyprus Warbler in addition to Eastern Orphean Warbler which was also new for us.

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Back to Turkey and to Cappadocia and from there we drove to the Aldaglar Mountains (Caspian Snowcock, Snowfinch, Crimson-winged Finch and finally, for us, Alpine Accentor which we had looked for previously in many countries!). On to Gaziantep (Iraq Babbler, Northern Bald Ibis, Pallid Scops-Owl, Eastern Rock Nuthatch) before returning to Istanbul for the raptor migration on the Bosphorus.

The raptor migration was something I had wanted to see since I was a kid. When we arrived, we were told it had been quiet with only 20 raptors overhead all morning which was disappointing and we were both thinking what this would have been like 50 years ago with millions of raptors migrating through the Bosphorus from Europe and Asia to Africa. After a short time chatting with the local guys, one of them started to get excited pointing off in to the distance and we all started scanning when first a trickle of raptors appeared; the trickle became a river and shortly after it started raining raptors with hundreds of birds moving ahead of a weather front. They estimated 1,300 raptors in the couple of hours we were there; Short-toed, Booted and Steppe Eagles with Common, Steppe, Long-legged and Honey Buzzards along with Eurasian Sparrowhawk – what a spectacular sight as kettles of raptors soared overhead above the sprawl of Istanbul below! Although the number of birds today are a fraction of what they would have been in the past with these birds running the ultimate gauntlet migrating between Europe and Asia down through the Bosphorus to Africa, it was still a birding highlight we will always remember!

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After the excitement of the raptor migration, we also got Yelkouan Shearwater on the ferry on the way back to Istanbul!

From Istanbul we flew to Thessaloniki in Greece primarily to meet up with family as there was only a single new species for us, Dalmatian Pelican which we got at Lake Kerkini NP, a Greece birding hotspot north of the city.

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Although not a ton of new birds for us, Turkey in particular, is a high recommend and perhaps even more so for birders with non-birder partners; with so much to do, with history going back thousands of years, stunning architecture, great accommodations and food, and the Turkish people are wonderful, so friendly and with a great sense of humour – really a trip worth doing for birders and non-birders alike!

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We will post the trip report on our birding website () with information on the itinerary, accommodations, guides, field guides and bird lists etc., and, as always, we’ll be happy to help and provide more information and advice for anyone thinking of planning a trip there.

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Happy fall birding!

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Derek

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