Emrah Çoban

Black-headed penduline tit, a rare bird species, has been spotted for the first time in Turkey in the eastern province of Iğdır.

The bird, known as Remiz macronyx, was found during work officials conducted in the Iğdır Aras River Bird Sanctuary as part of the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry's Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks' National Ringing Program.

A new bird species, smew duck, was spotted in Lake Çıldır in eastern Turkey.

A team from the Turkish conservation society Kuzeydoğa Association spotted the duck in the Taşbaşı village in the eastern Kars province.

Emrah Çoban, the coordinator of the association, told Anadolu Agency that their regular birdwatching bore fruit.

A brown bear named Arkadaş, which means "friend" in Turkish, which has been tracked through a satellite system that was attached to it in the Sarıkamış district of the eastern province of Kars, traveled 1033 kilometers in 141 days to find food and reproduce, according to an expert at Kuzeydoğa Association.

A Caucasian lynx, which is an endangered species, was spotted in the Scots pine forests in the eastern province of Kars' Sarıkamış district on Dec. 7.

The numbers of birds in Asboğa Lake in the northeastern province of Kars have increased following heavy rains in the region and the arrival of the spring, according to a biologist.

Emrah Çoban, a science coordinator at KuzeyDoğa Association in Kars, said that this spring's first bird count is completed.