As will be explained in more detail in another post, due to persistent border closures I needed to work out some sort of unwelcome, complicated, and expensive transfer to leave Ukraine and the relevant part of that story is that I had a few days to spend in Istanbul. That interesting city was definitely a long way off of my intended route, but the possibility of picking up a few more southerly-oriented birds helped compensate for that situation, somewhat. In fact, Istanbul is rightfully famous as a migrant trap during the spring and fall migrations, with raptors being notable highlights. However, in August one needs to be content with resident species and, not having done any research into the birds of that region before arrival, I was somewhat surprised that the bird list for Istanbul bears a striking resemblance to the rest of Europe.

Nevertheless, there were a handful of possible birds that would be new for me and, despite having only a few days in a densely-populated megacity, I was able to add four nice species to my tally. The first was Alexandrine Parakeet, a species that was certainly introduced from its home territory in India some time in the past, but, given Istanbul’s long history of trade, that may have happened long ago. One was squawking all day long from a tree next to where I was staying, but many long scans of that tree turned out to be fruitless. In the park next to the Hagia Sophia there were many more, but I continued to have the same problem until I finally realized that they preferred to spend their time in cavities up in the canopy. I was not expecting to be able to see more parrots until much later in the Tour, and that future section is no longer a certainty, so this addition was definitely appreciated

Just before sunset, Alpine Swift would usually come out to feed, and seemed to fly slowly enough to allow attempts to photograph them.

There were two marine species that I really wanted to try for, and a boat tour on the Bosphorus seemed like the best way to do that. The first, Pygmy Cormorant, was not too hard to find around the waters of the Golden Horn. For me, this specialty of the eastern Mediterranean and Caspian regions was a nice addition. Here, the Great Cormorant on the upper right gives a useful size comparison.

Another great bird was Yelkouan Shearwater, also special to the eastern Mediterranean. In February they can be seen in the Bosphorus in flocks numbering in the thousands, but in August one needs to be either sharp-eyed, or lucky, to see them. Fortunately, I was one of those things, and managed to see three separate groups.

This little bonus birding addition will, to a certain degree, help me feel like I am making progress, at least for a while, and that will be especially useful since I soon expect to be back in more northerly latitudes, surrounded by many birds that I have already seen.