This trip began a year ago, on May 11, 2024. It’s never taken me so long to write about an adventure, but I’ve done more international travel in the last year and a half than ever before. Between that and my growing obsession with iNaturalist, I’ve fallen behind, but Türkiye deserves its story told.
“Embrace the layover.” That was the advice that I received in the Birding Travel group on Facebook. I was looking for help understanding the airfares to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, for my much-anticipated trip in May. Was it really going to cost over $2,000 just to get there? The short answer was yes; the cost of airline tickets has increased dramatically for most long-distance flights.
Nearly all the routes that made sense for me flew through Istanbul. When Zoothera Birding trip leader Nick Bray told me he would be leading a tour in Türkiye immediately before our trip to Mongolia, I jumped at the opportunity. It would allow me to see a new country and new birds without spending an extra penny on travel.
After arriving at the huge new airport in Istanbul on May 10, I met a couple of other birders in our group, and we headed to our hotel for the night. I could recycle the introduction from my first trip with Nick here. Once again, I was the only American, the only woman, and the least experienced birder in our group.
The following morning, we flew to Adana in southwest Türkiye, where we started birding the coastal lagoons and marshes along the Mediterranean coast within hours of landing. Fourteen life birds the first day included the Squacco Heron and the Little Bittern in the photos below.
This Little Bittern was amazingly cooperative for a usually shy bird. Do you think that it looks a lot like our American Least Bittern? The two species are so closely related that they form a superspecies (also including Yellow Bittern). For a fun little science lesson in evolution, Google “superspecies.”
The next day, we headed north and found a bird on every world birder’s target list, Kruper’s Nuthatch (Nick’s photo below).
We continued our trek north and arrived at our “pension” (a small family-run guest house) with enough time to bird the nearby and spectacular Demirkazik Gorge. The day ended with more good birds, including Finsch’s and Northern Wheatears. At times, I thought this could have been billed as the Wheatear and Lark Trip. Many of those birds are highly desired species for world birders, which I was too inexperienced to fully appreciate.
Day three began at 5:00 AM when we left for Aldaglar Mountain to search for Caspian Snowcock, one of our primary targets for the trip. Above, the tractor that transported us an hour each way to the base of the mountain. The weather was awful, very cold and very foggy all morning (except for a few minutes when I snapped the photo above). I wrote in my journal that I was shivering even with double thermals and a warm coat. The snowcock did not give us the views everyone wanted, but after an hour of scanning, Nick finally had a distant bird in the scope, a view that the others considered “tickable,” but I did not. Due to my pickiness about what I will count and my poor vision, I also missed several other good birds that morning, but I was able to add White-winged Snowfinch (below) and Ring Ouzel to my life list.
The mist became so thick that we could barely see, but the intrepid British birders stuck it out for nearly five hours before we returned to the pension for food and a little warmth.
We headed back out in the afternoon with much improved weather. My luck improved greatly with Spectacled Warbler and Crimson-winged Finch among the birds added to my life list. We also had a striking Black-headed Bunting (photo below), a species I had not seen since my 2009 trip to China and Hong Kong.
We saw sheep in Türkiye on most days. I enjoyed hearing their bleating and tinkling bells as we watched this herd pass.
The next morning began with a return to Demirkazik Gorge. We observed several species of breeding birds there, including this lovely pair of Ortolan Buntings, obviously with a family to feed.
The drive to Sultan Sazligi Marshes took us through scenery ranging from gorgeous rolling hills to flat fields. I saw my life Bearded Reedling and Common Reed Warbler from the long boardwalk, and it was also fun to see several European Pond Turtles and a cute Marsh Frog.
Next was a long drive to our hotel in Gaziantep, where we arrived at 9:30 PM. We were now positioned to search for an important bird of the trip, Kurdish Wheatear. There was no sign of the target wheatear at our first location the next morning, but a beautiful Eastern Black-eared Wheatear did pose nicely for us.
Our next stop (still before breakfast) also gave us some nice birds, like our first White-throated Robins of the trip.
We also saw our first Cinereous Buntings, one of my new favorite species.
I also loved the landscape, a rocky hillside with wild roses and other flowers.
After a short drive, we reached Birecik. A highlight that afternoon was our first See-see Partridge. I spent way too much time getting horrible photos, not knowing that we would have much better views the following day. Still, seeing the bird, a top target for the trip, was exciting. The hotel wasn’t anything special, but it was across the street from the famous little tea park near the middle of town that is home to Pallid Scops-Owls. Finding one of the owls visiting its nest hole that evening after dark was a sweet end to the day.
We birded a couple of areas near Birecik the next morning, where we saw our only Black-bellied Sandgrouse of the trip.
Another highlight that morning was stellar views of several Iraq Babblers.
We drove north of Birecik that afternoon and passed through a military checkpoint. We were told that we could only be in the area for an hour, which put some pressure on us. The area was breathtaking with its rolling rocky hills. We saw a Little Owl, several species of larks, and a few other birds before our time was up.
While in the military area, Nick received a text from a friend with a hot tip about another location for Kurdish Wheatear, so we were off to look for this much-wanted bird – three hours away. Sadly, the tip turned out to be worthless; our second attempt to find Kurdish Wheatear was a bust. A better look at See-see Partridge than we’d had the previous day was a nice consolation.
May 17 was the next-to-last day of the tour and our last chance to look for Kurdish Wheatear. We started with the three-hour drive to Nemrut Dagi, the spot Nick had originally planned to find the bird. As they say, the third time is the charm, and we found our desired bird almost immediately.
After celebrating our success with the wheatear, we drove as high as possible on Nemrut Dagi, one of the highest peaks in the Eastern Taurus Mountains at 7,000 feet.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site sits at the summit, the hierotheseion (monumental tomb and sanctuary) built by the late Hellenistic King Antiochos I of Commagene (69-34 B.C.) as a monument to himself. It’s quite a hike to the very top and the archaeological site which contains giant statues of various gods, lions, and eagles. It was cold and windy, so we stayed near the parking area.
On another trip, with planning for it, I would love to explore this culturally significant site. It was just after noon when we left Nemrut Dagi for a leisurely drive to Gaziantep through gorgeous scenery with hills full of wildflowers and stops for birds along the way.
A magical moment that afternoon was a visit to a Blue-cheeked Bee-eater colony on the side of a little hill with an estimated 130 birds flying around attending to their nests. A few European Bee-eaters were mixed in the flock (in the lower left in the photo below). It was mesmerizing to watch those beautiful birds, and we found it hard to drag ourselves away from the amazing avian spectacle, but after an hour or so, we had to continue our drive to Gaziantep.
We had found all our targets for the trip, so our final day was relaxed. We added a few species to the trip list and returned to Adana for our flight back to Istanbul.
In addition to birding, I photographed as many other living things as I could for iNaturalist. Click on any image in the sample below for a larger view. You can see all of my iNat obs for this trip here.
Türkiye had not been on my bucket list of places to go birding, but I am grateful to have had this opportunity. It’s now one of my favorite countries, incredibly beautiful and home to many great birds. For a detailed accounting of the trip, see Nick’s official SE TURKEY TOUR REPORT 2024 on the Zoothera Birding website. Our eBird trip report, TURKEY 2024, shows our locations, complete bird list, and all my bird photos. As always, Nick led a fun and productive trip.
Birding for Life 