SE TURKEY TOUR REPORT 2026

The first of our two SE Turkey tours this spring got off to a cracking start with a big day total of 88 species seen as we visited the Gocsu Delta and hills inland for the first time. With some recent heavy rain and storms and rain for some of today, there were quite a few unexpected migrants seen. Best of these was an Icterine Warbler, but we also had a couple of Lesser Grey Shrikes, an European Nightjar ‘in off’, European Roller, 3 Red-footed Falcons, 1000’s of Barn Swallows and smaller numbers of Common Swifts moving east, with a few Little Swifts and a Pallid Swift mixed in with them. But it didn’t stop there, and we also had a superb flock of 24+ Rose-coloured Starlings pausing briefly in a nearby tree in the rain, and there were also a couple of White-winged Terns busily feeding along a watercourse. With all of this going on, it was no surprise to get a new trip sighting of an Eleonora’s Falcon mixed in amongst all the hirundine & swift action.

 We started the day about 15 kilometres away from the delta, quartering the numerous lanes around some reclaimed marshland, seeing several Little Bitterns, Delicate Prinia, the previously mentioned European Roller, our first Spur-winged Lapwing, a wonderful pair of White-throated Kingfishers, 2 Woodchat Shrikes, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler, and some fine European Red-rumped Swallows. Further exploration gave us a heard only Black Francolin, a superb male Red-backed Shrike, many singing Common Nightingales and European Serin.

Once at the Gocsu Delta, a flock of 100+ Alpine Swifts were seen high above us, with 3 Little Swifts mixed in, and there was also a Short-toed Eagle and an Eurasian Hoopoe. Meanwhile, standing on a bridge Joanne spotted a pair of Eurasian Penduline Tits visiting a nest and we had some lovely views of one of the adults when we followed a riverside track to get closer. I think maybe my best views ever! A Cetti’s Warbler and even a Common Nightingale posed beautifully for us in the same area, and bothTree Pipit and a female Black-headed Bunting were added to our vigorously expanding trip list. Further on amidst the marshes of the delta we found Gull-billed, White-winged, Whiskered, Little & Common Terns, 3 Purple Herons, Collared Pratincole, some lovely Feldegg Western Yellow Wagtails, a flock of 20+ Slender-billed Gulls, White Storks on their huge nests, Spanish Sparrows, a Black Kite, Garden Warbler, several Spotted Flycatchers, Rufous Bushchats, and a few groups of European Bee-eaters.

Moving inland and up into the hills we well and truly nailed Olive-tree Warbler, followed by Masked Shrike, singing Ruppell’s Warblers, and then in a conifer forest a few Kruper’s Nuthatches showed incredibly well visiting their nest boxes! Incredibly we found 2 more singingOlive-tree Warblersat our next stop, along with the local form ofLong-tailed Titlooking very different to ones we are used to seeing in Europe, more Masked Shrikes, and a pair of superbEastern Black-eared Wheatears. One final stop of the day in a rocky gorge gave us the desired Western Rock Nuthatch that just wouldn’t leave us alone, along with Blue Rock Thrush and a Sombre Tit. Phew, what a day!!

With early alarms all round, my very keen group were ‘up and at em’ before 5am enjoying tea, coffee & biscuits before a quick 30 minute drive up the mountain in two SUV’s. Our target this morning was Caspian Snowcock and I think I’m right I saying that we had the best experience with these birds that I’ve had so far. Hassan picked up a snowcock on the skyline within two minutes of arriving, with a light drizzle not boding well for the rest of the morning. However, within half an hour the cloud and drizzle had melted away and the sky started to become much clearer. We knew there had been steady rain and poor visibility for the past 4 days so we felt rather lucky!

Anyway, our attention was diverted several times by numerous White-winged Snowfinches, a pair of Crimson-winged Finches, a stunning Ring Ouzel, Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush and best of all a pair of Radde’s Accentors. In between these observations, we had more snowcock sightings but the birds were always distant. So after a couple of hours, we were all happy with the scope views of snowcocks and were spending more time looking for other birds when all of a sudden a snowcock began calling off to our left and it sounded much closer. So we hiked steeply up to a small ridge and began scanning and were treated to pretty decent scope views of a calling bird much, much closer. When it flew across the mountainside and came even closer, we couldn’t believe our luck and we spent a good hour watching this bird even closer as it called, mooched around the mountainside beside a large patch of snow and called again. Wow! All too soon our time on Aladaglar Mountain was over and we returned to the Pension for breakfast before heading back out at 11.15am. Our destination was the picturesque Emli Valley where we spent the afternoon dodging a few showers but having incredible sightings of numerous Barred Warblers, which were extremely confiding, active and vocal as if they had just arrived here. We also enjoyed fantastic views of a pair of Eastern Orphean Warblers in the same area of bushes.

We spent the next few hours checking various areas in the valley, finding our first Ortolan Bunting, as well as Kruper’s Nuthatch, Lesser Whitethroat, Golden Eagle, Red-fronted Serin, Western Rock Nuthatch, many Rock Buntings and a few Red-fronted Serins. Around 5pm the weather set in and we experienced low cloud and rain so headed back to the Pension for dinner.

We were out early as usual and heading to Isikli – one of my favourite sites on this tour. Parking in a small village we then followed a rocky track into a very scenic valley. A Syrian Woodpecker was first up, but was totally eclipsed by a stunning male White-throated Robin that eventually flew onto the top of a nearby bush just below the track we were on, and when I say the views were stunning….. they were truly stunning! As we walked slowly uphill, a fine Cretzschmar’s Bunting posed beautifully on the rocky hillside close by, and either side of this last sighting we enjoyed scope views of Eastern Rock Nuthatch calling away from the top of a cliff. When a fantastically yellow Cinereous Bunting appeared, we were all ecstatic. We also had Eastern Orphean Warbler, Eurasian Wryneck, double figures of Upcher’s Warblers, Blue Rock Thrush, Spanish & Rock Sparrows, and several Black-headed Buntings. At our breakfast spot we saw another Syrian Woodpecker and Black-headed Bunting before returning to the hotel to pack and check-out. The drive from Gaziantep to our next hotel near Birecik was only 40 minutes and with more heavy rain along the way, we decided to drop our gear off and take half an hour to ground ourselves! Fortunately the rain passed shortly after we arrived and we drove just 15 minutes away to an orchard where a couple of Yellow-throated Sparrows (WP gold right there!) posed nicely and an all-too-brief male Dead Sea Sparrow appeared. The nearby reservoir proved to be very interesting when a flock of 9 Great White Pelicans flew by. We also loved watching the group of Whiskered and stunning White-winged Terns here as well.

Moving on to the Euphrates River at Birecik and whilst eating a late picnic lunch we had a fine time logging our first Iraq Babbler, along with 100+ Pygmy Cormorants, 40+ Northern Bald Ibis, 2 Pied Kingfishers, and plenty of other species. We then headed into the hills behind the town where we eventually picked up 2 See-See Partridges thanks to Bart’s eagle-eyed spotting and ended the day at the storm-devasted park in central Birecik where a Long-eared Owl was totally unexpected. However, the views of one of a pair of Pallid Scops Owls perched in the same as the LEO was out-of-this-world! Dinner at a restaurant along the Euphrates River was a pretty good way to end another superb day.

We began the day at a Blue-cheeked Bee-eater colony set amidst a landscape of low lying arable fields on a beautiful sunny morning. And what an amazing spectacle to watch 30-40 pairs of bee-eaters tending to their nesting holes on a small hill at the edge of a small village. We spent quite a while watching all of the activity, taking photos, scoping the nesting holes and generally admiring them. With bee-eaters all around, perching on overhead telegraph wires, sat on bare branches of the nearby trees, and filling the sky with their bubbling calls it was most definitely an awe-inspiring experience. As we watched the colony, we saw two flocks of Rose-coloured Starlings passing overhead, numbering around 100 individuals. And with eyes to the skies we also picked up a few European Honey Buzzards heading north, along with a pair of hunting Black-winged Kites. With Great Reed Warblers, numerous Rufous Bushchats, a colony of Dead Sea Sparrows, some European Bee-eaters and singing Black-headed Buntings it was a very special visit. Our already famous picnic breakfast tasted very nice indeed this morning!

And then it was a two hour drive to Nemrut Dagi where we quickly found the much-wanted Kurdish Wheatear at its usual site high up the mountain. For Western Palearctic listers this is a tricky bird to get and realistically this is the only guaranteed site in our region. Again, we enjoyed watching a pair of wheatears feeding amongst the rocky slopes, but were constantly distracted by the numerous Cinereous Buntings that were singing all around us. After lunch most of the group headed up to the archaeological site at the top of the mountain seeing more Kurdish Wheatears and several Finsch’s Wheatears, along with Horned Lark and White-winged Snowfinch. Whereas Michael and I spent some time photographing a very aggressive and territorial male White-throated Robin and improving our previous photos of Cinereous Bunting. We also saw a Woodlark, Woodchat Shrike and a close Black-headed Bunting. And that was pretty much our day as we head just 5 minutes down the road to our hotel where we spent the night.