This year the Green Balkans’ team has found out that this winter the Pygmy Cormorant’s roosting place in Yambol has been restored. Over 760 birds have been observed there (compared to scarcely about hundred birds observed in the whole section of the Tundja river during the Midwinter counting of the species). In the region of the roosts the Green Balkans’ team has observed also other species of wetland birds - Great White Egret (Еgretta Alba), Grey Heron (Ardea Cinerea), Cormorant (Phalacrocorax Carbo), Swan (Cygnus), Water Hen, Coot (Fulica Atra), as well as 14 Dalmatian Pelicans (Pelecanus Crispus) and 60 White-Fronted Geese (Anser Albifrons) flying in the direction of Ovcharitsa dam.
All this shows that towns can also be refuge and habitat of rare species (we remind that last week the Green Balkans’ team observed along the Maritsa river besides the traditional species of wetland birds also … a young White-Tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus Albicilla).
Additional information:
The Pygmy Cormorant (Phalacrocorax Pygmeus) is included in the Red List of IUCN (the World Wide Fund for Nature).
In the course of the winter period nearly 20% of the European population of this species is wintering in our country.
The birds aggregate for sleeping in the same places every night – these places are the so called roosting places (roosts) which are trees in the beds of the rivers. The security of these places and the tranquility of the birds are of great significance for their survival. Frequently disturbance or poachers’ shooting chase the Pygmy Cormorants away from their roosts. While looking for a new appropriate place the birds are loosing much energy and often perish from exhaustion.
Due to ignorance or deliberately, many birds are shot down by poachers (especially in regions with fish-breeding farms whereto the birds sometimes go to feed). The destruction of natural riverside forests and habitats is another big threat to the species’ existence.
For additional information:
Ivelin Ivanov – Responsible for nature protection, Green Balkans
е-mail: iivanov@greenbalkans.org,
mobile: 0887589995
Translation: Prolet Ilieva
The Pygmy Cormorants came back roosting in the town of Yambol
