Greece: Lesvos in Spring Extension

For the last 40 years, birders across the world have flocked to Lesvos for the awesome birding that this small Mediterranean island has to offer. Lesvos (part of Greece) is separated from mainland Turkey by just eight miles (14 kilometers) of the Mytilini Strait. Its position, at the borders of two continents, results in the island having a great diversity of bird species, of both European and Asian origin, which simply takes off during the migration season (especially in the spring).

The main resident bird target on Lesvos is Krüper’s Nuthatch – a really beautiful representative of this large and widespread family (photo Eleni Galinou).

On this, the third-largest Greek island, extensive areas of very different habitats are found (such as olive groves, pine forest, garrigue, and maquis), while another very important aspect that lures the birds to the island is the number of wetlands that are found here. Lesvos has a surprisingly high bird list for a relatively small island of 348 species (following International Ornithological Congress (IOC) v13.1 taxonomy, as of July 2023), and as such this will prove an excellent short extension to our longer Birding Tour Greece: Spring Birding Adventure on the Greek mainland.

Spring on the island is an incredible experience as thousands of migrant birds pour into and over the island as they return from their sub-Saharan wintering grounds in Africa, some stopping to breed in Lesvos with others continuing further north. Multiple species from a wide range of bird families including many spectacular summer-plumaged warblers, flycatchers, wheatears, shorebirds (waders), crakes, terns, herons, egrets, birds of prey, pipits, wagtails, finches, and buntings move through the island and boost an already impressive resident population of bird species. Some of the top migrant highlights include Eleonora’s Falcon, Lesser Kestrel, Levant Sparrowhawk, Eurasian Scops Owl, Little Crake, Baillon’s Crake, Little Bittern, White-winged Tern, Whiskered Tern, Masked Shrike, European Roller, European Bee-eater, Common Nightingale, Olive-tree Warbler, Rüppell’s Warbler, River Warbler, Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin, Eastern Black-eared Wheatear, Isabelline Wheatear, Collared Flycatcher, Red-throated Pipit, Citrine Wagtail, Black-headed Bunting, Cinereous Bunting, and Cretzschmar’s Bunting.

European Bee-eater move through Lesvos in huge numbers in spring.

Being an island, Lesvos also has its own selection of interesting localized species and subspecies, including a couple of highly prized birds in Krüper’s Nuthatch and Western Rock Nuthatch. Other interesting resident species include Chukar Partridge, Greater Flamingo, Spur-winged Lapwing, Long-legged Buzzard, Middle Spotted Woodpecker, Short-toed Treecreeper, Long-tailed Tit, Sombre Tit, and Rock Sparrow.

We will search for the beautiful Masked Shrike on Lesvos (photo Lavrentis Sidiropoulos)