Rare Bird Species Recorded During Wintering Waterbird Count in Bulgaria

Rare and unexpected bird species have been recorded by the participants in the 43rd count of wintering waterbirds in Bulgaria, said the press office of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds.
The teams of specialists and volunteers have recorded six bean geese, a rare wintering species for Bulgaria, whiskered terns and sandwich terns that breed in the country but do not typically stay put for the winter. Among the rare winter visitors there are records of seven common cranes, a velvet scoter, and two red knots.
Other interesting species on record include Dalmatian pelicans, white-tailed eagles, tundra swans, European shags, great black-headed gulls, common goldeneyes and others. There are also quite a few species included in the IUCN Red List, such as the red-breasted goose, the common pochard, the long-tailed duck, the white-headed duck, the velvet scoter, and the horned grebe.
The cold weather, a week before the count, increased the number of waterbirds wintering in Bulgaria, but it also froze bodies of water throughout the country. Some 70% of the collected data has been processed so far, and it suggests that this January the birds in our land are three times more than in the warmer winter of 2018, or 361,933 individuals compared to 130,000, respectively.