Bulgaria and Romania: Birding The Balkans in Spring

This birding tour encompasses the majority of species-rich Bulgaria, along with the mighty Danube Delta in neighboring Romania. It offers a good chance of finding several tough and localized European birds, along with providing some great scenery and culinary delights!

The huge Dalmatian Pelican is usually seen well on this tour.

Bulgaria and Romania both sport bird lists of around 400 species (following International Ornithological Congress (IOC) v14.2 taxonomy as of August 2024) with the most productive time of year being spring, after the arrival of many sub-Saharan migrants. Our tour, being timed to witness the peak of this spring migration phenomenon, will also be combined with expert local guides and a comprehensive itinerary, and will result in a great bird list of around 200 species.

Some of the target birds for this trip include Dalmatian Pelican, Pygmy Cormorant, Ruddy Shelduck, Ferruginous Duck, numerous shorebirds (waders), and gulls (such as Pallas’s Gull, Caspian Gull, and Mediterranean Gull), and many raptors, including Eastern Imperial Eagle, Lesser Spotted Eagle, Booted Eagle, White-tailed Eagle, Egyptian Vulture, Cinereous Vulture, Long-legged Buzzard, Lesser Kestrel, and Levant Sparrowhawk.

Other localized and highly sought-after species include the famous Wallcreeper (a monotypic family), Masked Shrike, Western Rock Nuthatch, Sombre Tit, Pied Wheatear, Isabelline Wheatear, Spotted Nutcracker, Ring Ouzel, Olive-tree Warbler, Paddyfield Warbler, Semicollared Flycatcher, and several woodpecker species.

Lesser Kestrel is one of the many raptor species we should encounter in Bulgaria and Romania.

During the tour we will visit several Important Bird Areas (IBAs), identified by BirdLife International as extremely valuable for birds. Some of these include Trigrad Gorge, Studen Kladenets volcanic region, Krumovitza, Lake Burgas, Atanasovsko Lake, Srebarna Nature Reserve, Cape Kaliakra, Durankulak Lake, the vast Danube Delta, and Lake Techirghiol.