June 6th, 2025

Spring complete list data collection weekend organised across SE Europe

On the weekend of May 10 -11th, we organised the second, spring, complete list data collection challenge across the partnership of SE Europe (countries: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia). Under the slogan of “Every bird counts (double!) in SE Europe“, the partners aim to increase the participation of birdwatchers in recording observation to their national on-line bird platforms, with a special focus on the collection of complete lists. Since this second challenge was organised in spring, we also tried   to emphasise the importance of recording the breeding bird evidence, as this might contribute to the ongoing national atlas projects, as well as European initiatives, such as EBBA2 Live Farmland.


Breeding site for Sand Martin and Bee eater in Lakesine, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Although these efforts are promoted year-round (through Regional Dynamization Campaign), each season has one dedicated weekend to the challenge, happening simultaneously across the region. The results and effort are visible in near real-time through the shared platform SEELists, which also presents the phenological information at the species level, updated daily from the incoming complete lists of the region.


Phenological patterns of Sedge and Marsh Warbler as shown in SEE lists

Each partner of the LIFE EBP Reinforcement project leads the campaign within their country according to their local needs and with regards to potential connections and synergies with their other activities. In this sense, some partners opted to have a lecture on the importance of complete lists and recording breeding bird evidence beforehand (BIOM, Croatia and BPSS, Serbia), with many of them using this opportunity for a field session on the set weekend with the participants. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ornithological Society "Naše ptice" organised excursions in two key birding locations: Hutovo Blato Nature Park and Lakševine near Mostar. During these outings, observers recorded a rich variety of bird species, mostly waterbirds, Sand Martins, and Bee-eaters. In Bulgaria, BSPS, had an outing near Batova river Natura 2000 site, where they recorded a total of 48 bird species, including highlights such as Lesser Spotted Eagle, Booted Eagle, Dalmatian Pelican, Levant Sparrowhawk, Ortolan Bunting, European Turtle Dove, and Tawny Pipit.