Text © Tomas Axén HaraldssonPhotos © Johan Stenlund The third (following April 2012 and October 2013) arranged group trip by Swedish birders took place 5-13 May 2014 and included the highlights of eastern Azerbaijan: a few days in the Greater Caucasus, the steppes of Shirvan, the wetlands at Machmud Chala and Kizil Agach as well… Continue reading Azerbaijan Trip 5-13 May 2014
Text & Photos © M. Heiß The analysis of the bird migration study from autumn 2011 and spring 2012 at Besh Barmag is still going on and produced the first article: "The Importance of Besh Barmag Bottleneck (Azerbaijan) for Eurasian Migrant Birds" Acta Ornithologica 48(2):151-164. 2013. The bottleneck is important for several species occuring in… Continue reading Article published about bird migration at Besh Barmag
Are you interested in recent bird observations and great photographs from Azerbaijan? So, check out Clive Temple's birding blog: http://gonepishing.blogspot.de
Text © Tomas Axén Haraldsson, Sweden In April 2012 me and three friends travelled in Azerbaijan for a week of birding adventure. The main source of inspiration, knowledge and help in planning was Kai Gauger and to him we owe the success of our trip. One purpose of that trip was to scout and… Continue reading Swedish Birders visited Azerbaijan in autumn 2013
Text & Photos © M. Heiß The second half of our round trip through Azerbaijan led us along the Greater Caucasus range. We visted the alpine zone of the Shahdag National Park around the villages Laza and Xinaliq, which produced some good views of the Caucasian specialities. Welcome to Laza - steep gravel roads need… Continue reading Spring Trip from 21 May to 13 June 2013 (Part 2 – Greater Caucasus)
Text & Photos © M. Heiß Despite this year’s spring trip did not focus on birds, as the interest of the tourist group was in plants and landscape, we had a plenty of good views on the local bird species. The trip started in the capital Baku and we quickly headed south to the Shirvan… Continue reading Spring Trip from 21 May to 13 June 2013 (Part 1 – Shirvan NP, Talysh and Zuvand)
Text & Photos © M. Heiß The results of a recently published article propose to differentiate four species within the greater spotted woodpecker complex. One of them is Dendrocopos (major) poelzami that occurs in northern Iran and the adjacent Talysh Mountains in Azerbaijan. The latter is the only place within the Western Palearctic where it… Continue reading New bird species for Azerbaijan?
Text & Photos © M. Heiß In April, a group of Swedish birdwatchers visited my counting spot at Besh Barmag during their trip through Azerbaijan. Please find their excellent trip report on Swedish Club 300 or netfugl.dk. Birdwatching tourists - a rare sight, but with increasing annual numbers.
Text & Photos © M. Heiß The numbers of migrating birds decrease day by day and the end of the spring count is near. Seawatching produced a good day of migrating Arctic Skuas together with Common Terns. Two exhausted Arctic Skuas rested along the beach. One of them was already dying, so I checked the… Continue reading Skuas and Raptors
Text & Photos © M. Heiß Birdwatching in May is probably the most comfortable time with warm temperatures between 20-25°C, sunny weather and many birds and great song activity. Calandra Larks and Isabelline Weathears are singing in the steppes, whereas Nightingales, Cuckoos and Turtle Doves are singing in the bushes. Along the lagoon small breeding… Continue reading Photographs of the last days
Birding Azerbaijan 