In spring 2023 we set a research group among colleagues and friends, to monitor birds in the burned trans-boundary area. The first breeding season of censuses is over and hopefully we'll be able to monitor the situation on the study plot also in the next couple of years. Results from this year's census are not yet analysed, but here in this post, we'd like to share some first impressions we noted in the field, in the most severely burned patches of forest. During a recent visit (July 2023) to the northern s
Along a 3,5 km stretch of forest road we made 5 stops/points where we listened and searched for (mostly) woodpeckers in the most fire-affected patches of forest. The "count" was not very methodological and accurate (also due to the time of visit & season), but still gave a rough idea of the importance of such severely burned forest for the local birds. Every point held at least two Great Spotted Woodpeckers Dendrocopos major , with the highest number of Great Spots counted on one point being four individual
Apart from woodpeckers there were also lots of other small songbirds feeding in the burned pine stands. Unusual species for this type of forest (if the forest would be unaffected by fire) were the numerous Black Redstarts Phoenicurus ochruros and Spotted Flycatchers Muscicapa striata , both taking advantage of the more open space in the forest created by the fire and the infinity of suitable hunting perches. However the most numerically common were birds in mixed "gangs" such as Great Parus major , Blue Cya