Since its discovery in 2007 and subsequent scientific description, the Besh Barmag bird migration bottleneck has become a focal point for birdwatchers and nature enthusiasts. Situated between the Greater Caucasus and the Caspian shore, this location attracts large numbers of migratory birds. The first bird tourists arrived in 2014, and subsequent years saw several Bird… Continue reading The Besh team is still seeking counters
Photos © Elvin Məmmədsoy On 13 May 2023 a male Red-headed Bunting showed up in the Absheron National Park. This is the second record for Azerbaijan. The first record was on 19 May 2006 in Gobustan observed and photographed by P. Wernicke and H. Müller.
We are happy to announce another bird migration counting season at Besh Barmag bottleneck for autumn 2023. After the very successful full season in 2022 we are in good spirit and eager to run another long-awaited round of the epic bird migration count. With some highly motivated additions to our local team and keen old… Continue reading Call for Counters: Besh Barmag Bird Migration Count 2023
This story is about the last Siberian crane of the western population named Omid/Hope/Umid who lives alone for 18 years. It is one of the rarest birds you can see in Azerbaijan. Watch video to get more about Umid through storytelling of ornithologist Michael Heiß. Film: Elmaddin Suleymanov Camera/Edit: Aytaj Khalig Suleymanova Footages: Zoltán Orbán… Continue reading The sad story of Omid
Text © Gabi Caucal December 2022 at Besh Barmag: beautiful and interesting count extension! As in 2018, the monitoring continued during the first ten days of December. After a second part of November, overall very calm with a very slow movements of waterbirds (example: only 3 sequences with Greylag Goose data, 4 with Red-crested Pochard… Continue reading December 2022 at Besh Barmag: beautiful and interesting count extension!
In the beginning of November the famous travel writer and book author Mark Elliott visited the Besh Barmag Bird Migration Count. His impressions are summarised in an article by the The Caspian Post: https://caspianpost.com/en/post/news/caspian-region/birding-hotspot-besh-barmaq/ Enjoy reading!
Yesterday was the final day of the season at Besh Barmag bird migration bottleneck. Many people from across Azerbaijan, Europe and America visited and enjoyed this awesome place. Even more people were involved in arranging, organising and sponsoring this 3.5-month long event with daily counts from sunrise to sunset. To all of them a big… Continue reading 10 December 2022: Last day of the counting season at Besh Barmag
Text © Gabi Caucal The migration of Little Bustards is a phenomenon that any spotter would like to experience one day. The emotion it brings was as great as the number of groups counted! At Besh Barmag bottleneck on 6 and 15 November, 11 569 and 11 913 Little Bustards, respectively, were counted. On 15… Continue reading November, spectacular days at Besh Barmag!
Photos © Elvin Məmmədsoy, Zülfü Fərəcli, Leyla Muslim, Pia Fetting In the last week the counters at Besh Barmag bottleneck were surprised by some warm and sunny days. Unfortunately, this resulted in pretty slow migration with only a few birds on passage. But at least some delightful highlights were presented to the team like a… Continue reading Slow bird migration at Besh, but a European Serin and a Red-rumped Swallow!
Photos © Christoph Himmel, Leyla Muslim In the last two weeks we've been joined by various visitors including from schools and nature tour operators exploring Azerbaijan. There has been an astonishing migration of little bustards with nearly 30k individuals counted to date and an unparalleled waterfowl migration for the Western Palearctic. The icing on the… Continue reading November at the Besh Barmag Bird Migration Count
Birding Azerbaijan 