Birding Cyprus

A day spent guiding around Paphos with Mike and Jill, their first birding visit to the island!

We started at Ayia varvara to try and see some of Mikes target species, it didn’t disappoint.
3 male Little crakes put on a great performance on one of the pools, the first of many lifers for Mike!

A few waders were feeding on the edge of the pools and included; Little ringed plover, Greenshank, Wood, Green and Common sands and 6 Little stint.

Plenty of passerines flying over and in the surrounding fields and rocky outcrops. We spotted a lovely female Rufous tailed rock thrush sat on a rock and were treated to great scope views!

Other birds going over / feeding include; 2 Little owl, 5 European Turtle dove (my first of the spring), European Bee eater, 2 Great spotted cuckoo, 3 Cyprus wheatear, a single Black eared wheatear, 3 Greater Short toed lark, 3 Common Nightingale, Whinchat, 20+ Tree pipit, 4 Sedge warbler, 2 Great reed warbler, a single Masked shrike, 6+ Woodchat shrike, 4 Cretzchmars bunting and an incredible 26+ Ortolan bunting (biggest single flock I have ever seen!).

Next, we headed along to Anarita park.
Relatively quiet but some migrants were seen. The landscape at Anarita alone is enough to keep you interested!
Highlights include; Little owl, 3 Black eared wheatear, Northern wheatear, 8+ Tawny pipit, 5+ Tree pipit, Ortolan bunting and 4 Cretzchmars.

Aspro dam was our next stop and on arrival, was alive with passerines in the small pine forest.
2 Black eared wheatear, 17+ Tree pipit, 2 Common Redstart, 8 Whinchat, 2 Common Nightingale, 3 Cyprus warbler, 3+ Wood warbler, Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler, 2 Collard flycatcher, a single Woodchat and
Red backed shrike and 2 Ortolan bunting.
7 Garganey and a Greenshank were seen from the dam.

We finished the tour in the coastal area of Mandria.

200+ Glossy ibis and 13 Purple heron flew along the coast and we found a sleeping Collard pratincole in a ploughed field, presumably resting after its flight across. A Blue cheeked bee eater went over but like often, was not seen. On our way out, we found a freshly ploughed field which had the sprinklers on, it was alive with birds!
30+ Short toed lark, 800+ Yellow wagtail (of 5 races), 200+ White wagtail, 4 Whinchat, 7 Wheatear, 40+ Red throated pipit and 2 Woodchat shrikes!

These sites never disappoint and it was another fantastic day with some good numbers of common migrants seen!

I met up with Markos for a bit of birding on the eastern side of the island in the afternoon, our first stop was to Paralimni lake.

Failed to see the Diedrick cuckoo for the 3rd time but manged to connect with the female Menetries warbler, lifer number one of the afternoon! The bird had been present for over a week now and was the 6th record for Cyprus.
Not such an interesting bird to look at but watching the tail flicking behaviour was interesting. It looked like a cross between a lesser whitethroat and a female eastern subalpine warbler. No sign of the cuckoo whilst we were there so we left and headed to Cape Greco.

First port of call was to see if the recently found Bar tailed lark was still present, 9th record for Cyprus.

We walked the track and got to the last known location of it, no sign. Decided to continue north along the coastal path and to our surprise, we nearly stood on the bird! It blended in so well.

The bird showed incredibly well, often too close for optics!

We had a drive down to the cape and then decided to take a walk around the dive site, plenty of migrants were seen!

Cape Greco
15 Glossy ibis, Peregrine, Bar tailed lark, 2 Northern wheatear, Black eared wheatear, 7+ Cyprus wheatear, 6+ Whinchat, Common nightingale, Common redstart, Black redstart, 3 Cyprus warbler, 3 Common whitethroat, 10+ Lesser whitethroat and 2 Ortolan bunting.

A lovely few hours birding and two lifers (it’s been many years since that last occurred!)

Great day guiding Anthony around Paphos and then onto Akrotiri in Limassol.

Ayia varvara -

No luck with the wintering Finschs wheatears, they often disappear once the first Cyprus wheatears arrive back. We did however have Black eared, Cyprus and Isabelline wheatears in the quarry .
Tree pipits and woodlark headed north overhead and in the distance we heard a Common Nightingale and a
Great spotted cuckoo.

The pools were a little quiet but we managed a flock of Green and wood sandpipers, a common snipe and a single Black tailed gotwit.

Next stop was Aspro dam.

We made a stop below the dam to search for Cyprus warblers, we had at least 4 but they did not want to show themselves!
We added Hoopoe, Ruppells warbler and Eastern subalpine warbler to the day list whilst we waited for the warblers.
Up at the dam carpark it was a little quiet but eventually we saw a few species. 2 Black crowned night herons, Goshawk, 8 Black winged stilt and 2 Great spotted cuckoo. We were treated to great views of at least 2 Eastern Bonelli’s warblers, including one singing,

Onwards to Akrotiri marsh -

We made our way along the marsh, making several stops, plenty of birds!
Squacco heron, 50+ Glossy ibis, 2 Spoonbill, 3 Marsh sandpiper, 50+ Ruff, Hoopoe, 100+ Yellow wagtail, Red throated and Water pipit and 6+ Alpine swift were the highlights.

A stop for lunch in the gravel pits produced lots of newly arrived migrant passerines including my first masked shrike of the year.
2 Hoopoe, Tree pipit, Common redstart, 15+ Northern wheatear, 20+ Isabelline wheatear, 4 Black eared wheatear, Whinchat, 2 male “eastern type stonechat” Nightingale, 20+ Lesser whitethroat, 30+ Chiffchaff, 6+ Ruppells warbler, 2 Eastern subalpine warbler

A very good day with lots of freshly arrived migrants at all locations!

Photos courtesy of Markos Charalambides.