Spring Four Balkan Countries Birdwatching Tour

We will greet you at Sofia Aiport. Our tour begins with a 2-hour transfer from Sofia Airport to the Rila Mountains. We will be accommodated in a family-run hotel right in the heart of Rila Monastery Nature Park. There will be options to do quality birding directly from the doorstep of the hotel. For dinner, we can try some of the local food specialties such as the famous Shopska salad, grilled trout, and homemade sheep yoghurt with honey.

This will be a day of great contrasts and many bird species. After breakfast, we will head to the nearby Rila Monastery – a UNESCO-listed sight. It features beautiful monastic buildings with striking and mesmerizing frescoes from the Bulgarian Revival Period (19th century).  The monastery is surrounded by old-growth, coniferous forests and high, rocky peaks. We will explore the vicinity of the monastic complex, and try to observe forest, and high-altitude species such as Pallid and Alpine Swift, Yellow-billed Chough, different species of woodpeckers, Eurasian Nutcracker, Goldcrest, Firecrest, Ring Ouzel, Alpine Accentor, Dunnock, Red Crossbill and others. Around noon, we will leave the cool and shady forests of NP Rila Monastery and in less than an hour's drive, we will be at the scenic Kresna Gorge – a migration bottleneck site. There, the feeling that we are somewhere in the Mediterranean is distinctly eminent. We will have short birding walks in the area, which is special not only by its breath-taking sights of Pirin Mountains and impressive avian diversity, but it is also a biodiversity hotspot and we will enjoy observing different plants (including wild orchids), amphibians, and reptiles. Later, we will continue further south to visit Rupite – an awe-inspiring crater of a long inactive volcano. A 30-minute transfer from there is the smallest town in Bulgaria – Melnik. There we will be accommodated in a 3-star hotel for 2 nights. Some of the target species we will aim to observe are Griffon Vulture, Short-toed Snake-Eagle, European Honey-buzzard, Booted Eagle, Long-legged Buzzard, Levant Sparrowhawk, Sardinian Warbler, Eastern Orphean Warbler, Common Grasshopper Warbler, Eastern Subalpine Warbler, Cetti's Warbler, Western Rock Nuthatch, Eastern Black-eared Wheatear, Masked Shrike, Sombre Tit, Olive-tree Warbler, Icterine Warbler, Blue Rock-Thrush, Rock Sparrow and many more.

It is a day dedicated to Lake Kerkini – one of the most notable for its birdlife wetlands in Europe and a recognized Ramsar site. Besides its impressive biodiversity, the area of the lake is extremely scenic, which compliments the great birdwatching. From different viewpoints, we will be scanning the surface of the lake for migrating and already breeding waterbirds. We will also have an easy walk along the eastern part of the lake, where usually most of the waders are concentrated.  In the afternoon we will take an over an hour boat trip that will take us near to the flooded forest colony of different herons and cormorants. Our species list will be building up by the hour. We will return to the Bulgarian town of Melnik to see how the sunset colours the sand pyramids in pink while listening to nightingales and Scops owls. Melnik is famous for its wines, which we can sample in the evening.