In one place - where to see Libyan water birds

If you want to know where to bird watch in Libya and you want only one reference then it just has to be the report of the UN winter water bird count for 2005. 


Although there have been reports in the following years, the 2005 report includes a wonderful section describing each wetland, where it is, what it's like and what birds you can expect to see in mid winter.


Here is the official URL to download it. 


http://www.rac-spa.org/dl/pa_oiseaux/WaterbirdCensusLibyaJanuary2005.pdf

The authors names are given below.

I also recommend that you keep looking at this blog to find supplementary information!  I have visited many of the sites at a different time of year and have seen different birds than the authors.

Here is a reduced size map of the wetlands as presented in the report. The map itself is very helpful to me. I'm sure you will find it helpful too.

And here is an example of one of their summaries of a wetland. It's Wadi al Khalij.

In their summary they said that the reed-beds may well be an important stop-over for north bound migrants in spring. They are almost certainly right. When Gencer Gencoglu and I visited in October we found it was important for south bound migrants in autumn too.

You may re-call we observed a flock of 30 black-crowned night heron, some common redstart, and spotted flycatcher. We also heard the moorhen that they speculated might be breeding birds. We mustn't forget we also saw osprey and crag martin.

seven black-crowned night heron in late October at Wadi Al Khalij

From time to time I hope to post a few more of their summaries (duly referenced of course!) alongside my observations. Together we make a good start towards seeing the whole picture in each wetland.