Big News: You Can Now Support Our Nestbox & Bird Ringing Project!

 Hey everyone!

If you’ve been following my posts and videos, you know how passionate I am about wild bird conservation—whether that’s crafting custom, predator-proof nestboxes or ringing wild birds to help track local populations.

Watching birds raise their broods in boxes built by hand is an incredible feeling, and my goal now is to build and deploy as many nestboxes as possible across local habitats.

To help fund the timber, hardware, and equipment needed to scale this up, I’ve set up a Buy Me a Coffee page!

How It Works

• One-Time Tips: You can buy a "coffee" (a small, one-off contribution) whenever you'd like to chip in toward materials for the next batch of boxes.

• Monthly Memberships: If you want to get more involved, you can join as a monthly member to unlock exclusive perks like downloadable nestbox blueprints, private field updates, and behind-the-scenes nest check photos!

Every single contribution goes directly into materials for new homes in the wild.

Thank you so much for being part of this journey, watching the updates, and helping protect our local wildlife. Let’s build some homes together!

👉 Click here to visit my Buy Me a Coffee page!

Spring ringing in Bulgaria

It's been a while since my last post. Unfortunately, 2025 wasn't a very successful year for me in terms of ringing, as I barely managed any proper sessions. This year started much the same way, with no winter sessions conducted at all; however, I’ve fortunately been able to dedicate several mornings to ringing this April.

Since spring migration is quite sparse in my area, I decided to focus on the two Ficedula species that migrate through the region: the European Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) and the Collared Flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis).

Armed with my "master skills" in Audacity, I created a mix of calls and songs for both species and headed out.

While I did see Pied Flycatchers in the area, I unfortunately didn't manage to ring any. On the other hand, three Collared Flycatchers were ringed. I consider this a great result, as I had only encountered two individuals of this species previously.

Below are the total numbers of ringed birds and some photos. In May and June, I’ll be focusing on nest monitoring and ringing, so hopefully, I’ll have some interesting updates to share soon!

Species Name	Latin Name	Total Count
Blue Tit	(Cyanistes caeruleus)	1
Great Tit	(Parus major)	4
Chiffchaff	(Phylloscopus collybita)	5
Blackcap	(Sylvia atricapilla)	16
Lesser Whitethroat	(Curruca curruca)	1
Goldcrest	(Regulus regulus)	2
Wren	(Troglodytes troglodytes)	1
Song Thrush	(Turdus philomelos)	1
Blackbird	(Turdus merula)	2
Robin	(Erithacus rubecula)	9
Nightingale	(Luscinia megarhynchos)	1
Collared Flycatcher	(Ficedula albicollis)	3
Dunnock	(Prunella modularis)	3
Tree Pipit	(Anthus trivialis)	1
TOTAL		50

First ringing session for August - 05.08.2024

 We have a very dry and warm summer here in Bulgaria this year and I was not sure if, at that time of the month, there would be enough bird movement for the proper ringing session, but since it's been a while since my last ringing with the nets I decided to just go for it and see how it goes.

I woke up at 04:30 and set up only two nets at my usual rining place - 1x9m and 1x12m.

Initially, I was planning to use sound, but my portable speaker decided to give up on working so I had to continue without it.

The totals for the mourning were more than what I expected and the variety of species was a nice addition. I even recorded the full ringing session for YouTube so If you are interested you can check it out later in the posts.

Total: 28

Blackbird(Turdus merula) - 11

Common nightingale(Luscinia megarhynchos) - 3

Blackcap(Sylvia atricapilla) - 5

Whitethroat(Sylvia communis) - 2

Lesser whitethroat(Sylvia curruca) - 2

Great tit(Parus major) - 2

Blue tit(Cyanistes caeruleus) - 1

Red-backed shrike(Lanius collurio) - 1

Reed warbler(Acrocephalus scirpaceus) - 1

Red-backed shrike pair video

I'm not sure how many of you know, but I've been working on a YouTube channel for the past two years.

Here is one of my latest videos in which you can see a Red-backed shrike pair feeding their young with different types of food.

I hope that you will enjoy it and if you do please like and subscribe to my channel.

2023 results

 As always, I'm posting my ringing results for the previous year "just on time". As you'll see later in the post, it was a very successful year for me in terms of total ringed birds and a number of species. I've managed to ring a few new species and for the first time, I properly ringed birds during the late autumn.

The ringing camp in Durankulak was once again a very good ringing experience where I had the chance to ring some species that I usually don't see at my place. If you are interested to learn more please follow the Facebook page of the camp here --> https://www.facebook.com/Durankulak.Bird.Ringing.Camp 

Highlights for 2023:

• My first Semicollared flycatcher (Ficedula semitorquata) - finally after few years of nestbox building I ringed my first Semicollared flycatchers.
• Five new species ringed in my location - Redwings, Whinchats, Wryneck, Siskin and Semicollared flycatchers are the new species. 
• Best year in terms of total ringed bird(for me) - 991 new birds and 19 retraps.
• And last but definitely not least my first bird with a foreign ring! - So after 20 years of ringing and few thousand ringed birds at my hometown I managed to catch a Blackcap with Lithuanian ring. I have a dedicated post about it so if you want check it out here - https://birdsbg.blogspot.com/2023/10/visitor-from-lithuania.html

So without further ado, here are the total results for 2023:

Species	New	Retraps
S.atricapilla	328	1
P.major	106	8
P. caeruleus	87	5
A. trivialis	68
E. rubecula	52
Ph. trochilus	36
C. chloris	34
T.merula	27	4
A. caudatus	22	0
F. coelebs	21
R. regulus	19
Ph.collybita	19
S. borin	16
M. apiaster	15
F. montifringilla	15
S.communis	13
T. iliacus	13
L. collurio	8
E.citrinella	8
S. curruca	8
T. philomelos	7
C.coccothraustes	7
P.lugubris	5	1
T. pilaris	6
L. megarhynchos	6
F. semitorquata	6
R. ignicapilla	5
Ph. sibilatrix	4
M. striata	4
H. icterina	3
S. rubetra	2
T. troglodytes	2
O. scops	2
Ph. phoenicurus	2
S. europaea	2
C. europaeus	2
P. domesticus	2
A. scirpaceus	1
S.spinus	1
P. palustris	1
P. modularis	1
A. palustris	1
L. luscinia	1
D. minor	1
J. torquilla	1
A. schoenobaenus	1

Last ringing sessions for 2023 - 29.12/31.12.2023

 I was very motivated to end this year strong and that's why I decided to make two more sessions in the last days of 2023. 

On the 29th of December, I ended up with only two ringed birds, but one of them was a Redwing which for me was enough of a reward to make up for the early morning wake-up.

The session on 31.12 proved to be much more productive with 15 new birds and 3 recaptures:

- Blue tit -2

-Great tit - 2(3)

-Fieldfare - 1

-Chaffinch -1

-Brambling -1

-Greenfinch -2

-Goldfinch -1

-Yellowhammer -5

There was noticeable movement of small Yellowhammer flocks during the whole day and I was able to see a Sparrowhawk lurking around the nests, but as always it didn't go in.

I'll be posting my 2023 results in the upcoming weeks and I hope that we'll have even better 2024!

More Bramblings - 28.12.2023

The forecast for today was predicting a sunny and windless day so even though I'm still sick I decided to make another ringing session in the morning.

The plan was identical to the one I had yesterday, but this time no thrushes showed up on the first check of the nets. I saw a small flock of four Fieldfare flying high above the ringing site but that was it.

On the positive side, later during the morning, I ringed two more Bramblings which makes my yearly total of this species 12 (until this year I had only 3 Bramblings ringed at this site).

The totals for today are: 1 Blackbird, 2 Bramblings, 2 Chaffinches, 1 Wren, 1 Sombre tit, 2(2) Blue tits, 3 Great tits and 1 Long-tailed tit.

Sombre tit

Wren

Chaffinch

Christmas ringing session - 27.12.2023

 My initial plan was to conduct a ringing session on Christmas, but of course I got sick and it took me two days before I was able to get out of bed. So this morning still quite sick but full of motivation to end the year strong, I woke up at 05:30 and went to my ringing site.

The weather was extremely warm for the season (15 C) and I was not expecting much, but I was hoping that there are still some winter thrushes around the place. So at 06:00 I had my 3 nets ready and the T.pilaris/T.iliacus mix was already playing.

As expected, the results were poor in terms of numbers, but I can't complain about the species that I got. 2 Redwing, 1 Great tit and 1 Brambling.

In the upcoming days, I'll probably try a few more sessions with the hopes of increasing those Redwing numbers, but it all depends on the weather so fingers crossed!

1y Redwing(Turdus iliacus)

male Brambling(Fringilla montifringilla)

Late autumn ringing at Veshtitsa, NW Bulgaria

 This autumn I finally decided to dedicate some time to ringing winter thrushes( or at least attempts to do so) because my ringing results regarding winter thrushes are pretty much pathetic. The main problem for me is that I live and work in Sofia, but my ringing place is near my home town - 200km away from the capital. Until now I was usually taking 1 week off at the beginning of September to be able to ring during the peak of migration. It's all good when I'm focusing on most migrating species, but obviously not even close to optimal for ringing Fieldfares and Redwings.

Until now I had ringed 3 Fieldfares at the place (and no Redwing) so I was not hoping for much. My main idea was to use five nets and start playing sound 2 hours before dawn. I also decided that when the sun comes out I will change the sound to my finch mix to try and catch some Bramblings(I'm really in love with them but until this year I've had only 2 of them ringed at my place). I was ringing mostly in the early mornings because on most days I had to be home for work at 09:30.

After six days of ringing, I managed to achieve results that surpassed my initial expectations:

Results from the thrush mix:

Redwing(Turdus iliacus): 10

*ringed for the first time at my ringing site

Fieldfare(Turdus pilaris): 4

Blackbird(Turdus merula): 12

Song thrush(Turdus philomelos): 7

Results from the finch mix:

Chaffinch(Fringilla coelebs): 17

Brambling(Fringilla montifringilla): 11

Greenfinch(Chloris chloris): 30

Siskin(Carduelis spinus): 1

*also ringed for the first time at my ringing site

Visitor from Lithuania

 This autumn I got my first control recapture with a foreign ring! It was a second-year male Blackcap(Sylvia atricapilla).

The bird was ringed on 17.04.2023 at Stirniai, Trakų r., Lithuania, and recaptured by me on 23.09.2023. It had covered a distance of 1240km with the main direction of migration - 189° [S]

It's very hard for me to describe the pure joy and excitement that I've experienced!

The bird was released in good condition and hopefully, it managed to reach its wintering location.

Checking 23 nestboxes - results for 2023

 This year, I've decided to share the findings in my nestboxes with everyone by making short videos. I hope you'll enjoy the results and if you do, please like and subscribe to my YouTube channel.

2022 Totals

 It is once again time to share my personal ringing results for the previous year. As always, I'm quite late with this post, but I still think it's a good idea to share those stats, highlights, and personal observations with you all.

I will make a separate post about my nest monitoring results and observations of 2022, but my personal favorite was the clutch of Corn buntings(Emberiza calandra) that survived an intense hailstorm and still successfully fledged. I also managed to make a short film of a Red-backed shrike(Lanius collurio) pair feeding their young with different types of food. If you want to see this video please check it out on my Youtube channel.

For me, the highlights for 2023 were mainly the 8 Otus scops that I managed to ring, my first Caprimulgus europaeus, my first Turdus pilaris, the Ficedula species(which were also a first for me), the 11 Phylloscopus sibilatrix and the 43 Anthus trivialis.

In general, I had average ringing from the nesting season and fewer ringing days which resulted in fewer ringed birds compared to the previous year(for 2021 - total ringed: 691), but at the same time, I managed to ring 5 more species in 2022 compared to 2021(when I ringed birds out of 33 species).

Species

Sylvia atricapilla - 197

Parus major - 82

Anthus trivialis - 43

Cyanistes caeruleus - 38

Turdus merula - 22

Lanius collurio - 21

Phylloscopus trochilus - 20

Sylvia curruca - 19

Sylvia borin - 17

Sylvia communis - 13

Phylloscopus sibilatrix - 11

Parus lugubris - 10

Turdus philomelos - 10

Erithacus rubecula - 10

Muscicapa striata - 9

Otus scops - 8

Emberiza calandra - 5

Merops apiaster - 4

Emberiza citrinella - 4

Phylloscopus collybita - 4

Luscinia megarhynchos - 3

Sitta europaea - 3

Turdus pilaris - 2

Regulus ignicapilla - 2

Coccothraustes coccothraustes - 2

Aegithalos caudatus - 2

Phoenicurus phoenicurus - 2

Ficedula albicollis - 2

Streptopelia turtur - 2

Hippolais icterina - 1

Sylvia nisoria - 1

Dendrocopos major- 1

Ficedula hypoleuca - 1

Dendrocopos medius - 1

Regulus regulus - 1

Acrocephalus scirpaceus - 1

Garullus glandarius - 1

Caprimulgus europaeus - 1

Total : 577

Species: 38

Here are some of the photo highlights from 2022:

Turdus pilaris

Sylvia nisoria

Ficedula hypoleuca

Otus scops

Caprimulgus europaeus

Emberiza calandra nest

Streptopelia turtur hatchling

One of the 20+ Lanius collurio nests that I found

Merops apiaster

Phylloscopus sibilatrix

Red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio) pair feeding five chicks video

This summer I've spent some time monitoring Red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio) nest because this is one of my favorite activities during the nesting season. Shrikes are extremely interesting birds and I wanted to try and get some footage of a shrike nest with hatchlings.

So I chose a nest with a suitable branch for the camera. To be honest, I was very skeptical and didn't expect any results from this experiment, but the result was much more than I expected. The camera was filming for two hours and for that time the parents brought more than 15 pieces of food - spiders, cicadas, grasshoppers, flies, and even two very long lizard tails.

I really hope that you'll find this video interesting and useful.

Does any of you have experience with nest monitoring ?

Bird ringing camp 2022

I just got back from my one week at the Durankulak bird ringing camp and I wanted to share some observations with you.

Probably you don't know, but in the last four years, this ringing camp has become the biggest bird ringing activity in Bulgaria both in terms of total ringed birds and total different species ringed.

For two and a half months from August to the end of October, we have continuous ringing activities at the Durankulak lake which is located in the NE part of Bulgaria near the Black sea coast and the border with Romania. For more detailed information about the camp, check our Facebook page.

Every year, I'm responsible for one shift(one week) of the ringing activities at the camp. So this year I got a really late shift (from 15.10 to 22.10) which resulted in fewer birds because for most species that we target, the migration was almost over. The weather was dry, but a few of the nights were very cold(below 0). But the main problem for our ringing camp this season was a young fox that got used to checking our nets for trapped birds. It wasn't scared of humans and it managed to damage a few of our nets which forced us to either stay very close to the nets all the time or just close our forest nets in order to avoid birds being killed by the fox. We tried to catch it with a live catching trap, but without success.

Nevertheless, during my week at the camp, we've ringed two (in one day) Pallas's Leaf-warblers (Phylloscopus proregulus) and many other birds.

I can't share any data from the camp, but I'll make sure to post links to the official articles when they are ready.

If you have any questions about the camp. please let me know in the comments below.

Here are some of the highlights from my 7 days at the ringing camp:

Pallas's Leaf-warbler (Phylloscopus proregulus)

Pallas's Leaf-warbler (Phylloscopus proregulus)

Pallas's Leaf-warbler (Phylloscopus proregulus)

Dunnock (Prunella modularis)

Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)

Common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)

the sunset over the lake

Bearded reedling (Panurus biarmicus)

Male Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus)

Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla)

Firecrest (Regulus ignicapilla)

Moustached warbler (Acrocephalus melanopogon) 

Reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus)

Black redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros)

Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica)

Red-breasted flycatcher (Ficedula parva)

Greenfinch (Chloris chloris)

Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)