A Day's Birding in Hungary

The visit of the Center for Contemporary Opera (a New York organization with which I am affiliated) to the Armel Opera Festival in Szeged provided an opportunity to visit the southwest corner of Hungary and a chance to do some birding in the famous Hungarian steppe. Szeged is at the corner of three countries (Hungary, Romania and Serbia) and three very different language groups (Uralic/Ugaric, Latin and Slavic). Before World War I, all of these areas were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Szeged shows many traces of that great, long-gone imperium, not the least of which is the jewel-box opera house – an exquisite diamond horseshoe of the era with perfect acoustics and sightlines. It only holds 6-700 people, a perfect size for a quite intimate musical, operatic and dramatic experience. There were five companies from five different countries represented at the festival: from Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and the U.S. All the proceedings were broadcast on Arte, an international European arts channel and all the companies, except the one from the U.S. (us) had the support of their respective embassies. Only the U.S. does not support its own art and culture in any meaningful way.

But I did not set out to write a poltico/cultural diatribe. Suffice it to say that I had a fine day birding in the countryside with an excellent local birder by the name of Tamás Nagy. Much of Hungary is steppe country. The steppes of Eastern Europe constitute a flat open habitat that fills up with water in the spring, creating huge and dense marshes that often dry out in the summer, leaving a residue of minerals and salts (and sometimes actual salt lakes), all of which gives character to this neighborhood. Much of the steppe country (‘puszta’ in Hungarian) is not good for agriculture but, in the Szeged area at least, it has been possible to create fish ponds out of the old marshes and wetlands. Although some portions of the steppes are exploited for human use, there is a great swath that has been put aside and protected. There are some characteristic steppe birds of which the most famous are the Great Bustard and the Red-footed Falcon but, alas, the former does not occur in the area of Szeged and the latter, which nests here in numbers, had already migrated.

In spite of those disappointments, we did spend a long day visiting semi-woodland areas, fish ponds, marshes and wetlands, dry plains and salt lakes. The outstanding events of the day took place at the first stop in the morning and the last stop in the evening. The former was the sighting of a huge Saker Falcon perched on a transmission tower, seen from a rest stop on the highway just outside of Szeged.

The second was a visit at the end of the day to a salt lake in the middle one of the major pusztas which, unlike some of the others, had not dried up. The fields and wetlands here attract large numbers of migrating and wintering shore birds, waders (in our sense: that is herons, cormorants, avocets and the like) and waterfowl. Although many of the summer, breeding birds were gone, migrants and winter birds were filing in in considerable numbers. Many ducks and two species of geese – Greylag and White-fronted – were moving in for the night. But the climax of the evening’s events came in fading light of a spectacular blood-red sunset which was punctuated by wave after wave of Common Cranes moving in from the surrounding fields to the lake edge and even into the water itself. The trilling waves of sound produced by these magnificent birds could be heard in the distance even before the flocks could be seen. As they landed on the water’s edge, many of them launched into classic crane dances: nodding, bobbing, weaving, jumping up and down and waving their wings in a series of choregraphic duets. This is the opposite end of the year from breeding season but the cranes apparently continue their dancing displays throughout the year.

Below is an annotated list of the birds of the day, using mostly Svensson, Mullarney and Zetterstrom’s Birds of Europe.

Mute Swan (Cygnus olor)

(Greater) White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons)

Greylag Goose (Anser anser)

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)

Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata)

(Eurasian) Teal (Anas crecca)

(Common) Pochard (Aythya ferina)

Ferruginous Duck (Aythya nyroca)

Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula)

(Common) Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus)

Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis)

Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus)

(Great) Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)

Pygmy Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pygmeus) – one of two new birds seen; this is a pint-sized Eastern cormorant with a small bill, long tail and a shiny all-black plumage (duller in the young birds)

(Black-crowned) Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)

Great Egret (Casmerodius [Ardea] albus [alba])

Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)

[White Stork nests widely seen but the birds had already left.]

White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) – common in all wetlands areas; a close relative of our Bald Eagle

(Western) Marsh Harrier (Circus aeroginosus)

Hen Harrier (Circus cyaneus) – same species as our Northern Harrier

Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo)

(Eurasian) Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus)

Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)

Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)

Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug) – a huge Asian falcon (bigger than a Peregrine) with a Western outpost in the Hungarian steppe; the other life bird of the day

Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus) – heard only

(Common) Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus)

(Eurasian) Coot (Fulica atra)

Common Crane (Grus grus) – many hundreds of birds still present on the steppe

(Pied) Avocet (Recurvirostra avocetta)

Grey (Black-bellied) Plover (Pluvialis squatarola)

Northern Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus)

Dunlin (Calidris alpina)

Little Stint (Calidris minuta)

Spotted Redshank (Tringa erythropus)

(Common) Greenshank (Tringa nebularia)

Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa limosa)

(Eurasian) Curlew (Numenius arquata)

Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago)

Ruff (Philomachus pugnax)

Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus)

Caspian Gull (Larus cachinnans) – This is a split from the Yellow-legged Gull which is itself a split from the Herring Gull

Rock Dove (Columba livia)

Stock Dove (Columba oenas)

Collared Dove (Streptopelia orientalis)

Little Owl (Athene noctua) – sitting on the roof of an old barn almost literally in Tamás’ back yard!

Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)

Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos minor)

Crested Lark (Galerida cristata)

Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis)

White Wagtail (Motacilla alba)

(European) Robin (Erithacus rubecula) – This bird (the original ‘Robin’) and the following are not considered thrushes anymore but have been transferred to the Eurasian flycatchers!

Stonechat (Saxicola torquata)

(Common) Blackbird (Turdus merula)

(Common) Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita) – only warbler seen; all the others had already left

Eurasian Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) – Until recently, this was considered the same species as our Winter Wren but they have now been split (along with the Pacific Wren in the Pacific northeast).

Great Tit (Parus major)

(European) Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)

Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus)

Bearded Reedling (Panurus biarmicus) – beautiful views of a while family working their way through the reeds by one of the major fish ponds

Penduline Tit (Remiz pendulinus) – heard only; refused to show itself

Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor)

Jackdaw (Corvus monedula)

Rook (Corvus frugilegus)

Hooded Crow (Corvus cornix)

Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)

Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus)

Chaffinch (Passer coelebs)

(European) Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

(European) Greenfinch (Chloris chloris)

Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus)


Eric Salzman