Two days in Transylvania

As a part of Carol`s birding trip to Eastern Europe 2 full days were spent in the end of June, in Transylvania. She previously visited Bulgaria and Hungary (Hortobágy National Park) and we mainly looked for birds which Carol not seen yet.  In this short report I focused mainly on these species.

First day morning we have visited the Harghita Mountains where we quickly saw some targets such as a single Three-toed Woodpecker, Crested Tit, Common Crossbills and a Nutcracker family.

Tree-toed Woodpecker in the Harghita Mountains  (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

In the afternoon along the Homoród Valley we successfully observed a fine male Red-breasted Flycatcher, Lesser-Spotted Eagles  and unsuccessfully tried the White-backed Woodpecker. We finished the day with River Warblers, Garden Warblers, Thrush Nightingales and Corncrakes. The Corncrake site were amazing with at least 7-8 singing male of which we saw 2 birds well!

Second day we have visited the Gheorgheni basin  where we had excellent view of 2 male Common Rosefinch, 2 singing Grasshopper Warbler, several Fieldfares and a Great-Grey Shrike family with 4 fledgling youngsters.

In the way back to Odorhei we had an unexpected bonus, a Brown Bear! It was a young one, maximum 3 year old and just want to access through the road in front of our car.

Brown Bear  (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

We finished the day with a female Grey-headed Woodpecker, Garden Warblers and Icterine Warbler.

Sakertour team