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!

Best of autumn

These past few weeks have been super busy for me. I have been doing more fieldwork than I usually do, especially with a raptor count that we did in northern Israel. It has been an excellent autumn/fall migration, with good numbers of many common migrants. I enjoy this kind of birding very much. Admittedly there have been few proper rarities recently, but I'd rather marvel at spectacular migration every day than go twitching. 

On September 11th I was out in Maagan Michael, doing my routine monthly monitoring of our restoration project there. Halfway during a point count, I spotted a Pectoral Sandpiper that walked into view for two seconds, then disappeared from view before the two others with me could see it. I had to wait in agony until the 10-minute point count was over, to walk around the corner and confirm the all-too-brief ID. It was.

This sweet Eastern Black-eared Wheatear was one of many migrants present that day.

On September 16th my organisations (SPNI) has an event for our employees on the beach in Tel Aviv. I co-led one of the free walks we offered our staff, and found this White-tailed Lapwing on the beach - super unusual in urban Tel Aviv, a harbinger of a small influx that brought five birds to Tel Aviv. 

On September 19th I led a pelagic trip into the Gulf of Aqaba, on behalf of Eilat Birding Center. Only one bird came into the chum slick, but that bird was a Swinhoe's Storm-Petrel that showed very well for a couple of minutes. 

Before the pelagic Piki and I checked the KM20 saltpans that were full of common shorebirds. Among the less common shorebirds was this lovely Broad-billed Sandpiper:

September 23rd was a day of massive raptor migration over Israel. I was not out counting that day, I was busy doing all kinds of things, but the 36 minutes I could spare in my garden, watching the sky, were awesome: 2360 Lesser Spotted Eagle and 1420 Levant Sparrowhawks that went through in several tight flocks like this one:

I enjoyed connecting with two beautiful young Red Knots on Maagan Michael beach on September 26th - scarce birds in Israel, but this is THE place and time for them in our country:

Local birding has been awesome too, with some reservoirs holding large amounts of birds. Check this sweet flock of Whiskered Terns (and a Pied kingfisher):

On Yom Kippur (October 2nd) my birding/checklist streak had to continue, so I walked out of home to check the adjacent fields, unusually carrying my camera. Those were days of big European Bee-eater migration, and this wonderful flock perched on a mulberry looked especially glamorous:

On Cotober 3rd I was counting raptors in Gvat. Take-off was impressive, the Lesser Spotted Eagles struggled to gain altitude, and sailed past me very low, some of them very close. 

This one had a metal ring on, I couldn't read the code:

Steppe Eagle

On October 4th I was point-counting at our restoration site in Kfar Ruppin for a study we're doing there. Phenomenal amounts of birds still (eBird checklist here). After the point counts it was getting hot yet the alfalfa fields were full of birds. I found a Richard's Pipit which was a bit nice:

This shrike duo, Great Gray Shrike on left, and Lesser Gray Shrike on right, allowed good comparison. Both are so beautiful.

On October 6th I was counting soaring birds again, this time in Afek National Park, in central Israel. Raptor migration was quieter (eBird checklist here), but pelican migration was awesome:

Finally, a Spotted Flycatcher, one of many seen at Nafha on October 9th. In my eyes, this is a great example of a birds that isn't colourful at all, nevertheless it is so pretty. 

May the rest of the autumn continue to be so good!

Tanzania days 7 - 9 - Serengeti

How can one summarize four days in one of the world's greatest wildlife reserves in one short blogpost? big challenge but I will try. Our next destination during the recent Rockjumper tour I led was the world-famous Serengeti National Park. We arrived in the afternoon of November 10th, spent two full days in the park (November 11th and 12th) and drove out on November 13th. We stayed at Kontiki Tented Camp, located west of central Serengeti. It was wonderful to stay there, and its position also provided easy access to the western corridor of Serengeti. 

I will start with mammals. Heavy rains in the southwest of Serengeti resulted in fresh grass developing there. This brought in large numbers of mammals, and it was fascinating and thrilling to watch those mobile parades of thousands on Wildebeest and Zebra, feasting on the green grass. 

Happy Elephants

And Giraffes

Plenty of Hippos in the Hippo pools

Some served as Black Crake habitat

For most 'normal' tourists visiting the Serengeti, Big Cats are the main target. Despite our focus on birds, we did quite well in that area too. On our second full day, in the central zone of Seronera, we encountered three (!) Leopards, resting in trees. They are such beautiful animals.

Spot the plane in the background, coming in to land on the airstrip

When we watched this Leopard resting up in a tree, a naïve Giraffe approached the tree, unaware of the predator ambushing above its head. We could see the Leopard contemplating what to do with the stupid Giraffe: To jump or not? Eventually it chose not to go for it, perhaps because it was a very large Giraffe, oversized for a Leopard I guess.

Lions were plentiful, normally seen sleeping. 

The Lion King

Sorry for the graphic images. It was a breathtaking encounter, to watch this lioness with four cubs feeding on a fresh Zebra kill.

When we found this Lioness it was obvious she was meaning business. Check the look in her eyes - she was going for a kill. A large herd of Wildebeest and Zebra had just crossed a nearby stream, in a very tight formation. 

She brushed against our jeep - close enough to stroke her. Check her focused look. From so close all her scars, cuts and parasites were evident. Maybe because she was solitary her attack didn't succeed, but it was very exciting to watch, too quick to photograph.

This Spotted Hyena deserves a cuddle doesn't it?

Haartebeest - one of the less familiar antelopes

On the way out of the park we bumped into this African Wolf - a very cool mammal

Many mammals carried passengers - Red-billed Oxpeckers:

Yellow-billed Oxpecker on this Buffalo

Sometimes it was challenging to decide what to look at, birds or mammals. We birded hard, and saw so many great birds. Naabi Hill Gate hosted a battle of giants, two groups of Black-Lored Babblers clashed and it was stunning to watch:

We had there our first Hildebrandt's Starlings as well

Plenty of the iconic (and threatened) Kori Bustards inside the park

Secretarybird is another iconic bird, albeit bizarre

So is Lappet-faced Vulture - prettier from a distance

Early morning sunning for this Ruppell's Vulture, after a cold, wet night

Bateleur - never boring

Hartlaub's Bustard

Gray-breasted Spurfowl - endemic

Check that eye of the Greater Kestrel

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse after drinking - so beautiful (Black-headed Heron in the background). Check the primary moult in the male

Gray-backed Fiscals

Isabelline Shrike - one of many Palearctic migrants we saw

Usambiro (D'Arnaud's) Barbet

Fischer's Lovebirds were present in good numbers but not easy to photograph

We found the woodland near Kontiki very productive. Right by the camp we found, among the many birds, two very good species - Brown-backed Honeybird, looking and behaving very flycatcher-like:

And Miombo Wren-Warbler

Striped Kingfisher

Gray-crested Helmetshrikes - such charismatic and noisy birds

Pearl-spotted Owlet

A trip out to the western corridor on our first morning was highly successful. We found Black-headed Gonolek at a few spots. Super birds. This pair performed very well but for some reason my camera didn't. Sorry.

One of our main targets was Maasai Apalis, recently split from Karamoja Apalis, endemic to Serengeti/Maasai Mara system, found only in this unique thorny acacia habitat.

It took us some searching but eventually we found a trio of this globally threatened beauty. What a privilege to spend time with these rare birds. 

They performed very well

They even sang to us!

Out in the west we found another good bird - Levant Sparrowhawk. In recent years it has been discovered to be a rare but fairly regular migrant and winter visitor to the Serengeti. This information doesn't appear in the Birds of East Africa book yet - according to my friend Itai Shanni this information will appear in the next edition.

Next destination - Ngorongoro!