site.btaCommon Crane Returns to Nest in Bulgaria

The common crane has returned to nest in Bulgaria after a 66-year absence. This has transpired after a series of observations by a team of the Balkani Wildlife Society and WWF, the Association said. 

A team of ornithologists of the Balkani Wildlife Society, led by Petar Shurulinkov, has been following the return of the common crane since 2010. The presence of adult birds during the nesting period in the area of the Dragoman Marsh has been confirmed multiple times in the past five years, which has led to the conclusion that the species is nesting there. 

During the summer of 2022, a family of two adult birds and two hatchlings was spotted, and they returned this spring. In May the young birds disappear, and the adults are are difficult to spot, which is normal when the pair protects the nest, the eggs and the hatchlings. On June 11 the team documented the first common crane hatchling in Bulgarian since 1957. 

The species has disappeared from the wildlife in Bulgaria due to the destructions of wetlands which provide the conditions for raising the young birds. Twenty nesting pairs were last observed in the Batak Marsh, before it was flooded during the construction of Batak Reservoir. The common crane disappeared from the Dragoman Marsh in 1900-1907.  

In the 20th century the marsh was drained for agricultural purposes. In January 2020 a large forest fire destroyed over 80% of the vegetation there. Today, the Dragoman Marsh is facing threats such as pollution, eutrophication, draught and habitat loss. A number of animal and plant species have been affected such as the waterwheel plant, the Eurasian bittern, the Great egret, the Eurasian otter, the white-eyed pochard, WWF said.