Blue-headed Wagtail | Cyprus Birding Tours

Lovely day around Cape Greco today – dodging some very heavy rain at times. Great birds including this male Masked Shrike (photo).

Other sightings included:

Isabelline Wheatear 28+
Northern Wheatear 12+
Common Hoopoe 20 incl a group of five in off sea together
Cyprus Wheatear 4
Common Crane 1 heading E 09:45
Black Redstart 10
Lesser Whitethroat 8+
Common Whitethroat 2
Song Thrush 7
Bluethroat 1
Black-eared Wheatear 2 pale throated and 5 dark throated
Ruppell’s Warbler 3m
Masked Shrike 1m
Blue Rock Thrush 3 (incl a pair with singing male)
Cyprus Warbler 3m
Common Nightingale 1
Great Spotted Cuckoo 1
Hen Harrier 1f
Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler 2
Common Redstart 1m and 1f
‘Ehrenberg’s’ Redstart 1f
Desert Wheatear 1m
Red-rumped Swallow 7
Black-headed Wagtail 30
Blue-headed Wagtail 2

Masked Shrike, Cape Greco 13th March 2020 (c) Cyprus Birding Tours

Another good day out with the Travelling Naturalist Cyprus group. Today we visited Cape Drepanum, Arodes and Smygies and we had the luck to witness first hand the amazing numbers of Painted Lady butterflies currently migrating through Cyprus. We estimate we saw at least 200,000 through the day. We also saw some good birds including more Cyprus Wheatear, migrating flocks of Grey Heron and Little Egret, Blue-headed Wagtail, Chukar, Hen Harrier, Black-eared Wheatear and a Great Spotted Cuckoo pair. We rounded the day off finding several new orchid species.