Birdwatching news and bird photography from Azerbaijan- by Kai Gauger and Michael Heiß

Mittwoch, 22. Februar 2012

breeding birds of the foothills

Text & Photos © K. Gauger

It will take some time until my next trip to Aze. Meanwhile some older pics here...

Eastern Black-eared Wheatear
juv Pied Wheatear, or a hybrid with Black-eared?
Rollers are common in agricultural land and the lower mountains
despite intensive hunting Chukars occur widespread in the semi desert mountains
Tawny Pipit
the only known breeding site of Lanner Falcon, a juv above
Black Vultures breed in the foothills like in Turianchay SPA
Corn Bunting, one of the most common birds here
Rosy Starling mainly breed in Gobustan, but can be seen all over the country
Woodchat Shrike
Lesser Kestrels still have a good population
Egyptian Vulture, a rather scarce breeder
juv Little Owl
beatutilul Stone Curlew
Spanish Sparrows have huge colonies in the lower mountains
Greater Sandplovers breed in Gobustan and Shirvan but are often hard to find

along the coast

Text & Photos © K. Gauger

Slender-billed Gulls can be seen regugularly in small numbers
Pallas's Gulls are winter visitors along the coast and around the lagre inland lakes





Mediterranean Gulls have some small colonies here
Dalmatian Pelicans pass in flocks and also spend the winter in the wetlands
Arctic Skuas are regular migrants in small numbers
Red-necked Phalarops, resting in lagoons, there have been observations of tens of thousands in a single flock!
Tereks can be seen mainly in May and August/September
immense numbers of White-winged Terns migrate along the coast
Gull-billed Terns are scarce breeders, here in Shirvan NP
so are Little Terns, they suffer from lots of disturbance on the beaches
together with the latter ones these Collared Pratincoles were breeding in Kura delta

Yellow Wagatils

Text & Photos © K. Gauger

The breeding birds in Aze are Black-headeds but during migration millions of Yellow Wagtails of different subspecies pass through. Here are some of them...
male feldegg, local breeding bird
female feldegg, in a resting flock
I was very confused, when I saw this bird! It turned out to be a juv feldegg. The picture was taken end of May.
A crazy mixed flock of several subspecies, see below.
lutea with quite green head, nearly like flavissima



a bright yellow lutea
Tweety ;-)
beema
dombrowski
thunbergi