Global Big Day May 2026

Yesterday it was Global Big Day, plus World Migratory Bird Day. Twice a year, I do my best to see as many bird species as I (reasonably) can in a day. This time, my regular team was disfunctional. Jonathan bunked out completely. Rea was busy with other commitments (?!?) so he joined only for the Agamon Hula part of the day, then left. I birded the full big day with Omer and Shalev (a young keen birder). We birded our 'regular' northern birding route, which isn't regular of course - it's spectacular. Over the years we figured out it provides the best possibilities for great birding in one day and we repeat it almost every Global Big Day.

I left home at 02:00, picked Shalev and Omer up en route, and arrived at the entrance to the Hula Reserve at 03:56. Tawny Owls were properly active as they should:

We drove around in the open fields around Agamon Hula before dusk, in hope for some nightjars that we did not see. We did have however Barn and Scops Owls. We birded the first couple of hours of the morning in and around Agamon Hula. The lake itself hadn't anything special, but the groves and fields surrounding the lake were great. The mulberry trees attracted many migrants, including Olive-tree, Willow and Garden Warblers. The big Eucalyptus trees held nice numbers of Golden Orioles. We heard their fluty vocalisations all over, and saw many briefly, but taking a photo was something else...

Typical view of a Golden Oriole

We left the Hula Valley around 08:30 (and said goodbye to Rea) with 94 species - not bad. We climbed up Mt. Hermon, and swept up mid- and low-elevation specialties efficiently - Western Rock Nuthatch, Sombre Tit, Syrian Serin, Rock Bunting, Eastern Black Redstart, Eastern Bonelli's Warbler. We birded there in typical big day fashion, fast and furious, and none of the birds were showy, so no photos at all. 

When we descended to the Golan Heights in the late morning, the temperatures rose up to 37 degrees C (99 F) which made birding unpleasant. We made a few roadside stops to add species but escaped back to the air conditioned car. Valley of Tears was pretty good, with lots of birds singing and being active despite the heat. Black-headed Bunting, Upcher's Warbler, Woodchat and Red-backed Shrikes - good fun. A Eurasian Eagle Owl was scoped sat inside its burrow, our fourth owl species of the day. 

Languid Warbler

In the early afternoon we birded some fish ponds in the Bet Shean Valley, braving the extreme heat. Ma'ale Gilboa fishponds had Broad-billed, Curlew and Temminck's Sandpipers, a large flock of Collared Pratincoles, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater and Namaqua Dove. In Kfar Ruppin fishponds we had a nice tern selection including Common, Little, Gull-billed and Whiskered. We also had a few duck species including two Marbled Ducks.

I was under time pressure to return home, plus I was exhausted, and hot, so we called it a day. Arabian Green Bee-eater was our final new bird of the day. We ended the Big Day as a team with 149 species - pretty good I think (I added Lesser Kestrel on the drive back home). Check our eBird trip report here.

Thanks to Omer, Shalev and Rea for a great day - it was very good fun and totally awesome to be out in big day mode.

My Champions of the Flyway 2026

It’s been a few days since Champions of the Flyway happened. I’ve been super busy and couldn’t find the time to write about this inspiring event until now.

Champions of the Flyway 2026 conservation project was to protect falcons in Israel, including from poaching - #letfalconsflyfree

My team at BirdLife Israel and the team of Eilat Birding Center have been working hard for several months on this event, planned for March 26th. Our plans for an international event went up in the air, literally, with the Iran – Israel war. When the war escalated and didn’t end, we considered canceling the event altogether, in fear that no Israeli teams will commit to take part in the project, due to the security threats and instability. However, we decided to postpone the race day to April 27th, in hope that the war will have ended by then. Finally, the war did end, and 17 teams showed up in Eilat for the race. Originally, the date shift to the end of April seemed very promising from a birding point of view. Traditionally, this is one of the busiest periods for migration in Eilat, with huge numbers and diversity of migrants expected. 

I arrived in Eilat on April 26th and met with some of the teams that were in Eilat for final briefing. I managed a little bit of birding en route and in Eilat, and was shocked how few migrant passerines were around. This is possibly linked with the exceptional rain in the desert, providing migrants with rich stopover conditions all over the desert, making the traditional stopover sites of Eilat almost redundant.

On race day, April 27th, I was out all day with the teams, making sure everything was working fine and the teams were keeping safe and seeing birds. It was a tough day for birding for all teams, confounded by the lack of migrants. A few teams struggled to find some common migrants. Shorebirds were OK though, as were raptors. It was a big day for Levant Sparrowhawks, with hundreds taking off from the Eilat Birding Center in the morning. One got caught in the nets:

Noam Weiss, director of Eilat Birding Center, appreciating

Plenty of Euro Honey-Buzzards going through too:

There were a few Little Herons at the IBRCE too - are you OK with that new name? Fine bird nevertheless.

Some team members needed some assistance using my scope:

The Black Scrub-Robins in Kibbutz Samar were active as they should be - breeding now:

CF

Sorry for the poor sound recording - noise and wind and haste:

At the entrance to KM20 saltpans, a lone Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse showed very well. Stunning bird.

Supreme camo

This Blue-cheeked Bee-eater was one of quite many that moved through during the day:

So great to see these youth teams racing like pros:

Flyway Generations and IBRCE's Verreaux's Eagles at KM19

Before dusk teams congregated at North beach for the final push of diurnal birding:

Sooty Shearwater

Jonathan Meyrav, the person behind COTF for many years, now competing and leading the way

Proper North Beach photo by Yuval Dax

Personally, I had a good day of birding, despite the lack of migrants. 104 species ain't too shabby.

Next day (April 28th) I had time for early morning birding at Holland Park. It was so empty of migrants that the only bird photo I took was of these Laughing Doves. Nice to have a pair of Striolated Buntings on territory.

We met at North Beach for the traditional group photo. There were some distractions in the process, in the way of this fishing Western Reef-Heron:

Then we spotted a moribund Leopard Torpedo (what a cool name to an amazing fish) stranded in a coastal puddle. One of the guys found a bucket and released it back into open water. Sorry for embedding this X tweet, not the video itself - blogger wouldn't allow me to upload it.

בזמן שמשתתפי תחרות הצפרים באילת המתינו לצילום קבוצתי בחוף, הבחינו בדג החשמלן המנומר, לכוד בבריכה רדודה. הם סייעו לו חזרה לים. @yoavperlman מעדכן כי התחרות הייתה קשה במיוחד השנה, שכן הציפורים לא שכנו באזורים המסורתיים כמו פארק הצפרות אילת ויטבתה. המשמעות היא שהצפרים נאלצו לעבוד pic.twitter.com/sMoYhlrnYW

— ilana curiel (@ilanacuriel) April 28, 2026

The traditional group photo is by Yuval Dax and almost all following wonderful people photos are as well:

Getting ready for the award ceremony at the IBRCE (my humble photo):

Congratulations to the Great Tits - Ido, Ofer, Michael and Gur, a group of teenagers, for scoring 127 species and winning the Champions of the Flyway 2026 award! Huge appreciation to Hadas, their guide and mentor since a very early age, and to Adam, who was the 'responsible adult' of the team.

The Green Champions of the Flyway, Cream-coloured Coursers - Haim, Gabriel and Moshe. G and M are 14 and 16! Birding on foot all day, they are amazing!

Sanctuary Champions of the Flyway, the Ma'agan Michael Sandpipers, represented our Ma'agan Michael Birding Center, birded all day inside the IBRCE and did great!

Team Transitiva, an all-LGBTQ team, Dror, Tahel and Ruhama, won Guardians of the Flyway for raising the largest amount for conservation. They received as a prize for their efforts, three Swarovski Optik CL Companion binoculars.

Knights of the Flyway, the Goldfinches, an all-woman team, including two non-Jewish birders - Doris and Hulud, did a stellar job promoting the conservation cause, and also have been racing at COTF since 2015 without missing a year! You are awesome! Here they are in action at KM20 saltpans:

All COTF26 participants under 18 - the best thing about this race. Watch them - the future birding and conservation leaders of Israel.

Importantly, the substantial funds raised for protecting falcons in Israel will hopefully make a real impact, supporting better applied research, our anti-poaching unit, and outreach activities.

Thanks to Alen, Noam and my entire team at BirdLife Israel for organising Champions of the Flyway so well, once again. Eilat Birding Center hosted the events - thank you to the entire team who make us feel so welcome every year. Thanks to Yuval for photographing the event. Thanks to Swarovski Optik for supporting COTF. See you in Champions of the Flyway 2027.

Go Champions!

Birding in times of war

It's been a while since my last update here. First, my family and I are safe. So many of my friends worldwide reached out, worried about our situation. I hugely appreciate that. Thankfully, we have a safe room at home. During the 5 to 10 daily missile attack sirens we move quietly to the safe room and wait it out. Those last weeks have been very tough indeed. Sleepless nights, constant explosions, missiles exploding to our left and to our right, alert messages coming it constantly. Not fun. The war disrupts our life - schools are off, many work places are closed. For us at BirdLife Israel the war meant cancellation of many events and activities, including Champions of the Flyway that was supposed to happen tomorrow.

I hope this horrible war ends soon - our endurance is running out. However, not a war nor a pandemic can stop me from birding. The spring and the birds out there lure me, I can't resist. More on this below.

I have a little bit of catching up to do. Since I returned from Uganda in mid December, a succession of family medical cases limited my birding very much. Of course, nothing can stop me completely, but I was much less flexible than normal, missing out on lots of birds. Too many eBird checklists were done en route to a morning shift at the hospital, like this one. 

After all, in January and February I did see a few good birds, and take a couple of decent photos, despite all the challenges. 

It's Peregrine o'clock, Jaffa, January 14

Greater Scaup at Maayan Zvi, January 19 - my first in Israel since 1998, great find by Uriel Levi

Romanian-ringed Pallas's Gull, Palmachim, January 29

Isabelline Shrike, Dor, 1 February

Tristram's Starlings, Wadi Mishmar, 20 February

I managed to make it down to the Negev for my Asian Houbara point counts, part of a collaborative study with INPA:

Eared/Black-necked Grebe near home, 22 February

In late February I joined an international workshop in Eilat, organised by Noam Weiss, Alen Kacal and the Eilat Birding Center team. This is the fifth year we are holding this workshop, bringing together conservationists and bird people from the Eastern Mediterranean flyway. I really enjoyed my time there, meeting wonderful people, and seeing some good birds in the process. This is what happened when I found an Oriental Honey-Buzzard flying over, and interrupted one of the presentations. 

Namaqua Dove

One of the resident Painted Saw-scaled Vipers at Eilat Birding Center

The Negev is in amazing bloom after the generous winter rains.

Astragalus kahiricus

Ovda Valley

Eilat Mts. didn't receive substantial rain, but are stunning nevertheless.

Sinai Rosefinch - female

Loud workshop participants in the background:

A day before the war broke I visited Tel Krayot in the northern Negev to say hello to a fine Kurdish Wheatear:

The morning the war broke, February 28th, I was out birding with Piki not far from home. This was the first time of many that I was caught out by sirens while birding. Trigger warning - sirens in the background.

In the first week of the war I didn't move far away from home. All my birding was done within few minutes distance from our safe room. Even then, I got caught out several times with sirens. As much as I enjoy birding my very local sites, I started to feel somewhat claustrophobic. Slowly slowly, that urge to head out into the great outdoors and explore the beautiful habitats, reunite with the returning migrants, was too powerful. I started travelling to different parts of the country, for work and for birding. Taking unnecessary risks, for sure, but there's nothing I can do about it. Magical March. Birds. Flowers. Desert. Migration. You get it.

AI counted 2000 White Storks in this photo

We adopted recently a new dog, Mocha. She brought much-needed joy and laughter to our household after weeks of tension. On the way to pick her up I heard a familiar call.

On March 14th I travelled down with Arad to the southern Negev to admire the Thick-billed Lark breeding eruption developing. Wonderful habitat.

The weather was actually nasty with crazy winds and rain, but eventually I got some decent photos of the larks. Stunning birds. I like the soft light caused by all the dust in the air.

heading back home we noticed on the Mitzpe Ramon roundabout two leucistic House Sparrows that were mixed in with the 'normal' sparrow flock:

Coastal birding has been good recently, though I missed some peak days and purple patches.

Super smart Desert Wheatear

Typical coastal birding scenes - Rüppell's Warbler, Isabelline and Northern Wheatears

Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush from Tel Krayot - like clockwork

2cy male Citrine Wagtail from today at Maagan Michael - note the moult contrast in GC

I hope that by my next update the war will be over. I suppose I will receive some banter from hypocrites who will accuse me of crime wars committed by Israel and USA, ignoring the suffering of the people of Iran. And how can I go birding and write about it when innocent people are losing their lives and houses. Well, I don't ignore the suffering of any civilians, in Israel, Palestine, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and anywhere else. War is horrible for all involved. Also, last time I checked, I am not prime minister of Israel or president of USA. However, I live in Israel, and in this blogpost I describe my personal war experience.