Birds of Lake Kerkini and surroundings
Lake Kerkini is an astonishing place in northern Greece. Mrs Sciencebase and I visited in June 2024. I’ve put together galleries of the butterflies and moths we saw on our trip, trekking and boating in the area.
I took rather a lot of photos and have only now got around to processing the birds. We saw a lot of birds, tens of thousands of them were Common Cormorant, hundreds were Great White Pelican and Dalmation Pelican, lots were herons and egrets of various species, Spoonbills, a handful of Nightingales, fleeting glimpses of Hoopoe (sadly), a solitary Glossy Ibis, and just the vocalisations of Sardinian Warbler, Cirl Bunting, and a few others no solid sightings. Merlin app also picked up a few that we didn’t see nor hear, and are possibles but questions that will never be answered, such as Wryneck, Thrush Nightingale, Hawfinch, Red Crossbill.
Here’s a near-complete list of the at least 90 species of bird we saw and heard. I suspect we also saw Lesser Kestrel and Eleanora’s Falcon at some point without getting positive IDs on those two:
- Bee-eater, European (Merops apiaster)
- Blackbird, Common (Turdus merula)
- Blackcap, Eurasian (Sylvia atricapilla)
- Bunting, Cirl (Emberiza cirlus) (heard only or Merlin)
- Buzzard, Common (Buteo buteo)
- Buzzard, Honey (Pernis apivorus)
- Chaffinch, Eurasian (Fringilla coelebs)
- Chiffchaff, Common (Phylloscopus collybita)
- Coot, Eurasian (Fulica atra)
- Cormorant, Great (Phalacrocorax carbo)
- Cormorant, Pygmy (Microcarbo pygmaeus)
- Crossbill, Red (Loxia curvirostra) (heard only or Merlin)
- Crow, Carrion (Corvus corone)
- Crow, Hooded (Corvus cornix)
- Cuckoo, Common (Cuculus canorus)
- Dove, Collared (Streptopelia decaocto)
- Dove, Turtle (Streptopelia turtur)
- Eagle, Booted (Hieraaetus pennatus) Michael d only
- Egret, Little (Egretta garzetta)
- Firecrest, Common (Regulus ignicapillus)
- Flamingo, Greater (Phoenicopterus roseus)
- Flycatcher, Spotted (Muscicapa striata)
- Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)
- Goldfinch, European (Carduelis carduelis)
- Grebe, Great Crested (Podiceps cristatus)
- Greenfinch, European (Chloris chloris) (heard only or Merlin)
- Gull, Black-headed (Chroicocephalus ridibundus)
- Gull, Caspian (Larus cachinnans)
- Gull, Yellow-legged (Larus michahellis)
- Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) (heard only or Merlin)
- Heron, Grey (Ardea cinerea)
- Heron, Night (Nycticorax nycticorax)
- Heron, Squacco (Ardeola ralloides)
- Hobby, Eurasian (Falco subbuteo)
- Hoopoe, Eurasian (Upupa epops)
- Ibis, Glossy (Plegadis falcinellus)
- Jackdaw, Eurasian (Corvus monedula)
- Jay, Eurasian (Garrulus glandarius)
- Kestrel, Common (Falco tinnunculus)
- Kingfisher, Common (Alcedo atthis) (heard only or Merlin)
- Lark, Crested (Galerida cristata)
- Linnet, Common (Linaria cannabina)
- Martin, House (Delichon urbicum)
- Moorhen, Common (Gallinula chloropus)
- NightingaleLuscinia megarhynchos(Luscinia megarhynchos)
- Nightingale, Thrush (Luscinia luscinia) (heard only or Merlin)
- Oriole, Golden (Oriolus oriolus)
- Owl, Little (Athene noctua)
- Pelican, Dalmatian (Pelecanus crispus)
- Pelican, Great White (Pelecanus onocrotalus)
- Pigeon, Common Wood (Columba palumbus)
- Pigeon, Stock (Columba oenas)
- Raven, Common (Corvus corax)
- Redstart, Black (Phoenicurus ochruros) (heard only or Merlin)
- Robin, European (Erithacus rubecula)
- Shrike, Masked (Lanius nubicus)
- Shrike, Red-backed (Lanius collurio)
- Skylark, Eurasian (Alauda arvensis)
- Sparrow, House (Passer domesticus)
- Sparrow, Spanish (Passer hispaniolensis)
- Sparrow, Eurasian Tree (Passer montanus)
- Sparrowhawk, Eurasian (Accipiter nisus)
- Sparrowhawk, Levant (Accipiter brevipes)
- Spoonbill, Eurasian (Platalea leucorodia)
- Starling, Common (Sturnus vulgaris)
- Stork, Black (Ciconia nigra)
- Stork, White (Ciconia ciconia)
- Swallow, Barn (Hirundo rustica)
- Swallow, Red-rumped (Cecropis daurica)
- Swan, Mute (Cygnus olor)
- Swift, Pallid (Apus pallidus)
- Tern, Common (Sterna hirundo)
- Tit, Blue (Cyanistes caeruleus)
- Tit, Coal (Periparus ater)
- Tit, Great (Parus major)
- Tit, Long-tailed (Aegithalos caudatus)
- Treecreeper, Eurasian (Certhia familiaris)
- Wagtail, Grey (Motacilla cinerea)
- Wagtail, White (Motacilla alba) (heard only or Merlin)
- Warbler, Cetti’s (Cettia cetti)
- Warbler, Eastern Olivaceous (Iduna pallida) (heard only or Merlin)
- Warbler, Great Reed (Acrocephalus arundinaceus)
- Warbler, Moustached (Acrocephalus melanopogon) (heard only or Merlin)
- Warbler, Sardinian (Sylvia melanocephala) (heard only or Merlin)
- Wheatear, Northern (Oenanthe oenanthe)
- Woodpecker, Great Spotted (Dendrocopos major)
- Woodpecker, Green (Picus viridis)
- Woodpecker, Middle Spotted (Dendrocopos medius)
- Wren, Eurasian (Troglodytes troglodytes)
- Wryneck, Eurasian (Jynx torquilla) (heard only or Merlin)
All my blog posts about our Greece24 trip can be found here. The bird gallery will be over on Imaging Storm.