Hungarianbirdwatching.com

26/06/2024

More than birding....

One of our slogans is "More than birding". During the 20 years of our operation, we have organised many side-programmes integrated into our birding tours. E.g. we bought tickets to the Opera (at the time when online ticket ordering did not exist), we organised a birthday programme for our 80-year-old birder at his wife's request, we also organised several winetasting events in various wine regions like Tokaj, Eger, Neszmély and Sopron. On our Zemplén tours, visiting the Regéc Castle or the Boldogkő Castle is a regular programme.

In Budapest, in addition to the traditional sightseeing programmes, we also organised industrial heritage tours and various folk-art programmes, and in September we will organise a felting workshop for the wife of our birder guest.

This year we were asked to organise two special programmes. One of our guests is a fan of reptiles, especially snakes. For her, we organised a visit to the largest reptile fair in Central Europe, where she could see many snakes, geckos and chameleons, and also visited the Hungarian Meadow Viper Conservation Centre, which also provided an opportunity for the staff of the Conservation Center for networking through our guest's herpetologist connections.

We also fulfilled the dream of our guest from the UK, who wanted to admire the mayfly swarming. He put himself on standby according to our swarming forecast and within 16 hours of our signal he was on a plane and we managed to catch a strong medium swarm, which was an unforgettable experience for him.
Of course, the organisation of these activities requires careful preparation on our part and flexibility on the part of the guests, so these side-programs can only be included in a multi-day birding tour.

In Hungary, the average length of stay in Budapest is 2.6 nights, so most of our guests only book a one-day birding trip, but they also have limited time for sightseeing. Hungary's cultural and natural heritage, its unique bird fauna is worth a weeklong holiday, and we can help you organise it professionally.

(All photos by Károly Teleki)

11/11/2023

Nature Photographer of the Year 2023...

The Hungarian Nature Photographer of the Year 2023 competition was organised by Naturart the Society of Hungarian Nature Photographers.

Csaba Daróczi became the Nature Photographer of the Year. Csaba’s 12 photos were finalists, including two category winner photos. Csaba has recently won Bird-O „Bird Photographer of the Year 2023” photo contest.

The Young Nature Photographer of the year prize was awarded to Ákos Őri, who had 1st and 3rd prize in the Youth category.

Zsolt Moldován won the Nature Photograph of the Year award for his photo his photo „High jump” which captures the moment when a Red Fox cub tries to catch a Maybug.

Excellent bird pictures were finalists in the competition, like Kornél Bedő’s White-tailed eagle predating a can photo or György Pósfai’s Spotted Flycatcher pair photo.

The photo exhibition displaying the best pictures of the competition was opened on 7 November 2023 and can be seen in the Hungarian Natural History Museum. You find more photos of the competition at Naturart website (check Hungarian „ÉTF Pályázat”//”ETF 2023 Nyertes Képei”/ menu”) ...

06/11/2023

Bird-O „Bird Photographer of the Year 2023”…

Bird-O is a Hungarian photo competition, first held in 2022, and exclusively open to bird photos.

This year, 2500 entries were received in 10 categories. In addition to the best-known names in Hungarian bird and nature photography, many "first-timers" also submitted images, increasing the diversity of individual perspectives.

Csaba Daróczi was awarded the Bird Photographer of the Year and Tamás Koncz-Bisztricz was awarded the Young Bird Photographer of the Year. The Bird Photo of the Year "Love on the Lake" was taken by Tibor Horváth of a pair of Black-winged Stilts.

The exhibition of the winning and finalist photos is currently on display at the Budapest Zoo until 15 January 2024.

The best photos from this year and last year can be viewed on the Bird-O website, and the video below showcases the 51 winning and highly rated images of 2023.
https://youtu.be/B053kp8Ar1Q?si=f312YDe_AOZtdczE
Congratulations to the winners and organisers.

A rövid videóban felvillantjuk mindazt az 51 képet, amelyik magasra értékelt vagy kategóriadíjas lett, illetve különdíjat kapott a 2023-ban benevezett 2500 ...

25/10/2023

Nearly 200,000 Common Cranes in Hortobágy…

Hortobágy is a major stopover in autumn for migrating Common Cranes (Grus grus). While in the late 1980s only 3,000 individuals were observed at the Hortobágy fish ponds, in the last 8-10 years the number of birds has surely exceeded 100,000 at least in one week in October. The peak so far was around 8 October 2018 and 2019 with around 160,000 cranes.

This year the record was broken on 13 October, when Hortobágy National Park staff counted more than 180,000 cranes. Thanks to the mild weather and the excellent feeding and roosting sites, the cranes did not migrate any further and by the count on 20 October 2023 there were already 194,750 cranes in the Hortobágy area.

This year, the Hortobágy National Park celebrates the 50th anniversary of its foundation. The crane is the emblem of Hortobágy NP, the first national park of Hungary, perhaps not by chance...

08/04/2023

Magical Hungary Photo Contest 2022......and travelling nature photography exhibition

Magical Hungary is one of the country's most popular nature photography websites and one of the country's most prestigious nature photography competitions. Each year since 2009 photographers were invited to submit images in 9 categories (including Bird category), which attracted almost 4000 entries in 2022.

The most successful photographer of the year, and the winner of the Grand Prize for Hungarian Nature Photography was Csaba Daróczi, who was awarded the Golden Crane statuette, followed by Norbert Kaszás in 2nd place and Ferenc Kocsis in 3rd place.

A travelling exhibition of the best photos will be organised, the first stop of which will be the Hungarian National Museum, where the photos will be on display until 4 May 2023. Other venues in May and June are the Royal Castle in Gödöllő (5-22 May 2023) and the Hungarian Agricultural Museum (23 May - 9 July 2023).

24/12/2022

We would like to wish all our guests, partners, birders Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, with this card showing Common Goldeneyes.
In Hungary Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) is a regular passage and winter visitor on deep waters from late October to end of March. The most common wintering sites are large rivers like Danube and Tisza, and Lakes like Balaton and Lake Tisza. But you can find this nice duck on extensive natural lakes and gravel pits as well.
The photo of the Goldeneye male and females was taken by Károly Teleki in February 2020 in South Budapest, where each winter flocks of 20-40 birds are wintering on the Danube.

22/12/2021

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year…

We would like to wish all our past and future guests Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, with this card showing a Short-eared Owl. In Hungary Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) breeds in small and fluctuating numbers (10-80 pairs) on lowlands in marshy meadows, grasslands and occasionally in agricultural fields. We mostly see Short-eared Owls during migration and winter, mostly in the Great Plain. Some individuals of overwintering Short-eared Owls occasionally can be seen among Long-eared Owls (see the owl in the background) roosting on evergreen trees of country towns. The photo of the Short-eared Owl was taken by Károly Teleki in February 2020 in Túrkeve, where each winter Long-eared Owls are roosting in large number in city parks and gardens.

03/08/2021

Bonelli’s Eagle in Hungary…
…very rare vagrant, third record in Hungary

On July 30, 2021, at noon, a young Bonelli's Eagle
(Aquila fasciata) was seen and photographed by
Kornél Tóth at the gravel pits of Rábapaty in Western Hungary. The male bird had a color ring and a satellite transmitter and turned out that the bird was banded as a chick at the nest in Andros Island, Greece, this spring.

The bird crossed the Balkan countries (Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia) in a straight line and entered Hungary on the 25th July. Between 31st July and today (3rd August) several birders twitched the Bonelli’s Eagle, which is a rarity in Hungary. So far only in 1907 and 1943 was the bird observed in Hungary, so this is the third record.

Congratulation to Kornél Tóth for finding the bird and to Katalin Borbás for the excellent shot. Thanks to LIFE Bonelli eastMed project for providing invaluable and timely information on the bird and its movement.