Urban birding
A young city with the potential to become a popular birdwatching destination of the future
David Lindo finds that Novi Sad is a young city with the potential to become a popular birding hotspot. Will you visit this year?
Novi Sad means different things to different people. For some, it is one of the vibrant party capitals of Eastern Europe, as it plays host to the famous Exit Music Festival and is a firm feature in the diaries of techno fans.
Indeed, the city has been named as the European Capital of Culture for 2021. Then, there is the historical side. It is a surprisingly young city, having been dominated over the centuries by various invading bodies. Standing on the banks of the Danube in northern Serbia and, curiously, twinned with Norwich, it has only been recognised as a city since 1748 and is the second largest in the country. The urban birding history is even briefer. The city is crying out for an ornithological history. To start contributing to this near empty well is to stand in the central square and look up. House Sparrows and Collared
Doves are commonplace.
Keeping an eye skyward will result in an eyeful of Feral
Pigeons. However, patient observation may reward the beholder with a drifting Sparrowhawk or even a
Peregrine flashing through. Generally speaking, Novi Sad is quite a bird-rich city. In the summer, you are never too far from groups of hawking Bee-eaters, Long-eared Owls secretly proliferate in the woods, while Rooks, Jackdaws and Hooded Crows are all common urban birds.
Winter sees groups of Hawfinches feeding in the canopies of the city’s parks. Beneath them tit flocks rove, often together with Short-toed Treecreepers. A couple pairs of the extremely rare Saker Falcon breed on the outskirts. Among the rarities discovered in the city are solitary records of Dalmatian Pelican on the Danube and a Wallcreeper found on a castle wall by an unsuspecting member of the public.
While scanning the buildings in the central square you will notice an imposing church imaginatively called The Name of Mary Church. If you are looking at it during the summer you will notice swifts buzzing around its spire. A closer inspection will reveal that they are both Swifts and Pallid Swifts. The latter Mediterranean species were only discovered breeding in the church in 2012. Perhaps they were overlooked as just regular Swifts. It is now known that this tiny nucleus colony has spread since 2019; however, it wasn’t even birders that discovered that fact. Local residents had handed over young Pallid Swifts that had fallen out of nests to bemused staff at the local BirdLife Serbia office.
There are a couple of good parks within the city that are worth checking out. Futoški Park is a small wooded park near the centre of town that if you Googled would find little information to help you in your birding quest. But it has a nice population of urban Scops Owls that nest in the holes of the numerous old trees scattered around the park. Little Owls also breed here, as does Serbia’s trademark owl species – the Long-eared Owl. Watch out for woodpeckers, too. Syrian Woodpeckers are truly an urban species in this part of the
world. It is very similar looking to its cousin, the Great Spotted Woodpecker, but one of its differences is that it is far more of a frugivore than its more familiar relative.
This species regularly tucks into walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, apricot stones plus cherries, mulberries and raspberries, making them not very popular with the fruit farmers. Both Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers can also be found breeding in the park. A further currently non-breeding species of woodpecker to watch out for is the Middle Spotted Woodpecker. They are increasingly being found roaming the park, having emanated from the woodlands of Fruška Gora, a national park outside of Novi Sad. Other summer breeders include Spotted Flycatcher, both Redstart and Black Redstart and Hooded Crow. During migration, Futoški Park is a great spot for discovering migrant Wood Warblers that pass through in their scores.
Limanski Park is very close to the Danube and still near the city centre. It has more of an open plan landscape design although still holds a rookery in some of the stands of trees. Kestrels also breed here, along with the woodpecker species mentioned previously. As it is near the Danube, there are opportunities to notice riverine species like Kingfisher, Pygmy Cormorant, and Black-headed, Caspian and Yellow-legged Gulls. Plus, it is a great spot to watch for overflying White-tailed Eagles. Along the riverbank away from Limanski Park are many riverside restaurant and bars. It is possible to sit and enjoy a cool beer while sifting through the gulls looking for a scarce Mediterranean Gull. Look up during the migration seasons, and you may be blessed with a Black Stork passing over. The bars are often surrounded by trees, meaning that many woodland birds like Short-toed Treecreeper, Willow Tit and Nuthatch can be noticed while you hang out. There have even been instances of revellers straining their ears in the dead of night to hear calling Long-eared Owls or even roosting migrant Red-footed Falcons calling out at night!
On the western outskirts of the city lies Kovilj-Petrovaradin Marshes. This large floodplain adjacent to the Danube consists of areas of wet woodland populated by good stands of oak, poplars, Ash and willows. During the breeding season, you could happen across Black Stork, Black Kite and White-tailed Eagle, all of which nest in the area.
Also, expect to see White Stork, Squacco Herons and Night Herons in the marshy sections, plus secretive Ferruginous Ducks. The passerines to be found include good populations of Penduline Tit, Marsh and Great Reed Warblers, Golden Orioles; and the sound of Cuckoos fills the air. So this is your starting point for birding in Novi Sad. The rest is up to you.
● Following on from David Lindo’s article on Tunisia in the December 2019 issue, the Facebook page for Birding Tunisia can be found at www.facebook.com/ Birding-Tunisia-152649011458262/
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