Batumi Raptor Count

FINAL DAY OF THE SEASON!!! We had the chance to enjoy and say goodbye to most of our birds one last time. We look forward to sharing more details about our overall season in our 2026 Autumn Report, so stay tuned! Didi madloba to all who made this season a success! Bird photos by Valentin Cordes

This year, we launched our first BRC summer bird camp with two groups of 13 and 12 students. Chosen from schools in Ajara region, the teenage students got the chance to connect with nature through environmental education, hands-on learning, and direct engagement with ongoing conservation work.

One struggle familiar to many birders is quickly getting a fast-moving bird in your scope’s field of view before it’s gone! To help overcome this challenge, we use SkyFinder telescope add-ons donated by Bart De Saedeleer. Check out his creations here: www.facebook.com/3DToolsBart

Between seawatching and the second-largest day in BRC history, we logged 258,504 individual birds across 96 species during the 2026 Euro BirdWatch!!! Photos: Bart Hoekstra, Elle Heiser, Thijmen Stolk, Valentin Cordes, Arda Faruzlu

Yesterday we managed to count a combined 239.735 birds! This was the SECOND BIGGEST DAY EVER in BRC history! We also broke our day- and season total for Black Kites, our day-record for Large eagles, Greater Spotted and even for Steppe Eagles! 
 Photos: Bart Hoekstra, Thijmen Stolk

ONE. MILLION. RAPTORS. COUNTED!!!! A huge thank you to the 39(!) volunteers who have joined us this season so far. Photos: Mitra Daneshvar, Valentin Cordes, Elle Heiser, Thijmen Stolk, Bart Hoekstra, Olaf Gwiazdowski

CRESTED HONEY BUZZARD!!! This year, we have been lucky to observe 56 CHBs so far, double our average of 28! Photos by Thijmen Stolk, Valentin Cordes, and Yang Li

We are halfway through BRC’s 18th autumn count and in the midst of our Black Kite peak! With all this exciting kite chaos, it feels like an appropriate time to shout out our sponsor, Kite Optics! Enjoy a 10% discount with the following promo code: BRC2500KT Photos: Valentin Cordes

500.000 birds counted!!! The past three days, the skies have exploded with Honey Buzzards, resulting in daily(!) totals of more than 90.000. Photos by Thijmen Stolk, Jess Cosentino, Yang Li, Mansour Elkerdany, Toka Eldakamawy, Olaf Gwiazdowski, and Sofia Meskhidze

We reached 250,000 birds! This sets us ahead of the average counted by this date. Undoubtedly, the star of the show for the past week has been European Honey-Buzzards, which comprise 98% of our current totals. Photos by Valentin Cordes and Tanja Schachner.

After a few drizzly days on station, the clouds finally parted and streams of Honey-Buzzards began to flow through the bottleneck - today’s raptor total was 903! Photo credits: Valentin Cordes, Lauren Evans, Oscar Hazell, Toka Eldakamawy

Today was the first day of BRC’s 18th autumn raptor count! While raptor migration isn’t yet in full swing, our first Honey-Buzzards, Booted Eagles, White Storks, and Black Storks rewarded our efforts scanning today’s sunny skies. Photos by Lauren Evans, Valentin Cordes, and Jess Cosentino.

The 2026 BRC coordinators have arrived in Batumi and eagerly await this season's outstanding team! We are very grateful to our sponsor, Kite Optics, for providing stellar optics and financial support to make this year's count possible!

Meet our trainees! Toka from Egypt, Arda from Türkiye, and Redha from Lebanon will join us as the 2026 cohort of the Flyway Monitoring Traineeship. We set up this traineeship program with OSME last year. Read more about the program and trainees: www.batumiraptorcount.org/news/2026/8/...

⏳ Just 7 days to apply for the Flyway Monitoring Traineeship Spend a month at Batumi Raptor Count, learning hands-on migration monitoring in one of the world’s largest raptor flyways. Fully funded travel + acco. Open to conservationists in OSME region. www.batumiraptorcount.org/flyway-monit... 🪶🦅

Call for Counters! Join BRC in Autumn 2026 to witness the magnificent migration of >1 million raptors, improve your ID skills, and contribute to population monitoring! Fees: €10-24/day with discounts available! Read more & apply here: www.batumiraptorcount.org/volunteer-as-raptor-migration-counter

NEW PUBLICATION! Long time coming — now out: the results of our pilot spring raptor counts in Batumi! Read about seasonal contrasts in raptor migration, the eastern Black Sea coast as a principal spring flyway, and much more. 🦅 Paper: doi.org/10.5253/arde... #ornithology @batumiraptorcount.org

Recommended read: our 2025 Autumn Report is out! As part of our tradition and commitment, we’ve compiled a comprehensive overview of the season’s highlights and phenological peculiarities — complemented by many beautiful photos of both birds and people! 👉 batumiraptorcount.org/autumn-report-2025

A typical Batumi migration scene, illustrating the idea of an ‘aerial niche’. For Steppe Buzzards in our bottleneck, that niche is often somewhere between the clouds: great to watch, tricky to count. Fascinating paper by @cnilsson.science et al: doi.org/10.1016/j.tr... 📸 @barthoekstra.bsky.social

It’s a wrap! 🎉 Today marked the final day of #BRC17! What an unforgettable season it’s been: records broken with countless surprises and memories made. All the details will be included in our upcoming autumn report, which will be released soon. Keep an eye on our social media to stay up-to-date.

1.5 MILLION RAPTORS! 🦅🤯 For the first time in BRC history, we have recorded a staggering 1.5 million raptors in a single autumn season — a true milestone after 17 years of counting! Read more here: www.batumiraptorcount.org/brc17/2025/10/15-million-raptors #ornithology #RaptorResearch

Live from the field! The 1,422,172nd bird — a juvenile Black Kite flying through the misty clouds — crossed our transect line this afternoon, making 2025 the BIGGEST year in BRC history!! Stay tuned for more!

170K raptors! 🤯 8 yrs in the making, but I’ve finally witnessed a 100k+ raptors day while on the station actually counting the bulk of it. Incredible experience. Still feeling cross-eyed from staring through the scope non-stop for almost 10hrs. 📸: the Shuamta team at the end of this incredible day

Topteam!!!

170.000 RAPTORS IN ONE DAY! After yesterday’s heavy rain and a quiet morning, today the sky exploded with Steppe Buzzards and large eagles! Continuing from 10 am until almost the end of the count. At some point, we counted over 14.000 raptors in less than 20 minutes. THAT'S BATUMI! #ornithology

A true Bluesky — filled with raptors! After days of rain, we were greeted by a bright, blue, cloudless sky this morning! The result? Thousands of birds and a high species diversity. With the main message: the eagles are coming! Stay tuned for more! For daily totals: www.batumiraptorcount.org/data

Astounding for the @batumiraptorcount.org crew to reach the 1 million milestone so early in the season. 😳 Congrats to all volunteers and flyway trainees, expertly led by the first ever all-women coordinating team: Eva Drukker, Elien Hoekstra and Mitra Daneshvar. Celebrations are in order! 🤩

BRC at the Avian Odyssey 2025! Join the British Ornithologists’ Club at the Natural History Museum, London, on 20 Sept. @tohar-tal.bsky.social will share how BRC monitors and conserves the migration of 1M+ raptors in Georgia. Tickets (incl. online): www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/... 📸Marc Heetkamp

Meet our trainees! Motahareh from Iran, Yaren from Turkey and Leyla from Azerbaijan will join us as the 2025 cohort of the Flyway Monitoring Traineeship. We set up this traineeship program with OSME last year. Read more about the program and our trainees: www.batumiraptorcount.org/news/2025/7/...

Trying to figure out if we are doing what we think we are doing in migratory bird count surveys. Now the blog version: bou.org.uk/blog-efrat-w... @bou.org.uk @batumiraptorcount.org @yaelbird.bsky.social 🪶🐾🧪