Winter birding around Hungary never crossed my mind until John Hansford suggested it to me, with a nice list of winter visitors from further north such as Red-breasted Goose, Wallcreeper and thousands of Common Cranes, I thought it was worth giving it a try! Since I haven't birded continental Europe properly, there were quite a few targets for me as well. So, Hoiling and I booked tickets via Helsinki and headed towards Budapest, where we will tour the city with my parents for a few days before starting the proper birding tour with John and his friend Steve Norris, where we will be guided by Zoltán Pabar from Hungarobirds, a guide based around the small town of Kisújszállás east of Budapest.
Helsinki layover:
We had an 11 hours layover at Helsinki via Finnair, our plan was to visit a few museums, which was unfortunately impossible as all the museums were closed on Mondays. We ended up walking around the city, where we strolled along the Töölönlahti lagoon in the cold. But our efforts did not go to waste, as we bumped into a flock of Bohemian Waxwings! Feasting on various berries on offer. I got some good views of them until a train came through and flushed them all, strange that they are not afraid of people but terrified of a passing train.
 |
| Bohemian Waxwing |
Otherwise, we only saw other common parkland birds such as Blue Tit, Great Tit and Eurasian Siskins as well as a few waterfowls around the lagoon, all in all a pleasant day out around Helsinki. One bird of interest was a single Eurasian Tree Sparrow, which was funnily enough my first one ever in Europe!
 |
| Blue Tit |
 |
| Great Tit |
 |
| Eurasian Siskin |
 |
| Eurasian Tree Sparrow |
Budapest City:
We toured around the city of Budapest for 5 days, which gave us plenty of time to explore various museums, monuments and landmarks of the beautiful city. We also did a bit of birding here and there around various parks. The first bit of birding was done around Gellért-hegy.
It was a bit foggy, but we yielded a pair of Short-toed Treecreepers, a new bird for me, but one that require listening out to their call which is different from the Eurasian Treecreeper. Their bill is said to be slightly longer, and the primary pattern is also said to be "evenly stepped". The statements seems to be true, when we later on caught up with a few Eurasian Treecreepers, while the length of the toes do seem to differ, I doubt it is of any use in the field.
 |
| Short-toed Treecreeper |
 |
| Eurasian Treecreeper |
Hooded Crows were very common all around the city, while Eurasian Jays were more numerous in area with more trees, one posed nicely for me around the lookouts.
 |
| Hooded Crow |
 |
| Eurasian Jay |
A few Hawfinches were spotted, although never close. Both Great Spotted and European Green Woodpeckers were seen, with Great Spotted being the most numerous species around the city.
 |
| Hawfinch |
 |
| Great Spotted Woodpecker - female |
 |
| Great Spotted Woodpecker - male |
 |
| European Green Woodpecker |
A hike up János-hegy yielded nothing for Hoiling and I due to extremely thick fog, we did try to listen out for the call of the Black Woodpecker which suppose to frequent this area. We only found an old nest hole of the largest woodpecker in Europe, but never the bird itself. Birding was almost impossible in the fog, but it was a pleasant walk and I would love to return again in better weather to see the view of the city.
Városliget Park yielded good views of my first Middle Spotted Woodpecker, the male showed incredibly well and came down to feed right at eye-level! I espeically like the pinkish hue on its belly, it certainly is an attractive looking bird!
On our last day we took a stroll around Margit-sziget, the little island in-between the Danube River situated near the heart of the city. The park was filled with Eurasian Nuthatches, as well as a few Goldcrests and other common urban park birds.
 |
| Eurasian Nuthatch |
 |
| Goldcrest |
Kisújszállás, Hortobágyi National Park and surrounding areas:
We met John and Steve late in the afternoon at the airport (where John nearly lost Steve!) on 15th of November, our guide Zoltán met us all there and drove us east towards Kisújszállás, it took just 1.5 hours to reach the quaint little town. The lodge that Zoltán owns is comfortable and very well equipped. Since it gets almost completely dark by 4pm at this time of the year, no birding was done on our first afternoon there. The next morning, Zoltán took us to the bakery to grab some food for the day, and that's where I saw my first of many Long-eared Owls! Nearly 300 of these incredible owls roost around the town centre! We ended up spending three mornings here looking at the owls, the most amazing thing was that the locals either take no notice of these owls or they were just so used to them that they barely stop and look at them! Needless to say, we took way too many photos of these owls.
 |
| Spectacle of roosting Long-eared Owls |
 |
| Long-eared Owl |
Syrian Woodpeckers were more difficult than I anticipated, they were present around the town, but since we didn't spend too much time in town, that maybe the reason we never got close views of one.
 |
| Syrian Woodpecker |
Our first day was spent around the fields south of Kisújszállás, Greylag Geese were numerous, but it took us a while to locate a flock of distant Great Bustards.
 |
| Greylag Geese |
 |
| Great Bustard |
The area around Kisújszállás was very good for raptors, other than numerous Common Buzzards, Eurasian Kestrels and Hen Harriers were seen throughout the day. We saw Eurasian Sparrowhawks daily, mostly of single birds.
 |
| Hen Harrier - male |
 |
| Eurasian Sparrowhawk - male |
We also had quite a few encounters with Imperial Eagles, although most of them were juveniles. Rough-legged Buzzards were not common here, but we did see a few during the trip, mostly just birds in flight.
 |
| Imperial Eagle |
 |
| Rough-legged Buzzard |
Best raptor in the area in my opinion were Saker Falcons, we saw a total of 3 birds on this trip, this large falcon is almost as big as a Buzzard, and when in flight looked bigger than a Hooded Crow! An absolute beast!
 |
| Saker Falcon |
Zoltán took us to this farm where he wanted to show us Crested Larks, that he delivered, right where he said they would be. We also had a Little Owl there but it was very skittish.
 |
| Crested Lark |
Another day we spent birding around a small lake north of Kisújszállás, here our main task was to scan through the thousands of Greater White-fronted Geese for either Lesser White-fronted or Red-breasted Geese. We had no luck with either species. We didn't really find any particularly interesting ducks either.
 |
| Greater White-fronted Geese |
A Black Redstart gave great views here, although a fairly common species throughout, they were a lot more skittish than I expected! A surprise lifer for me was a long staying Lesser Yellowlegs on one of the drained pond, although it was very distant. Great Egrets are quite common throughout.
 |
| Black Redstart |
 |
| Lesser Yellowlegs |
 |
| Great Egret |
John saw a Merlin while he was on his own (why he was on his own require a little imagination), it was slightly disappointing that we missed this species, but thats just how birding is sometimes! Steve spotted a Great Grey Shrike which later perched up in the distant for all to see, it was a decent view through the scope. A small flock of starling murmuration was a nice touch to end the day there.
 |
| Great Grey Shrike |
 |
| Common Starling |
Lake Tisza:
We spent a day going around Lake Tisza, a series of large lakes along the river Tisza. Most of the waterfowls were too far to photograph, we did find a few Greater Scaups with hundreds of Eurasian Coots. Kingfishers were pretty numerous here, we saw one at almost every stop.
 |
| Greater Scaup and Eurasian Coot |
 |
| Common Kingfisher |
The best birds there were no doubt 10 Black-throated Divers! They started off quite far away, but slowly came in closer for a slightly better view. Caspian and Yellow-legged Gulls were also added, both new for me.
 |
| Black-throated Diver |
 |
| Caspian Gull |
We saw some 'white headed' Long-tailed Tits, the nominate race comes in from the north during winter months. A Lesser Spotted Woodpecker gave quite good views, but the best bird had to go to a Black Woodpecker which came out of nowhere! It flew past us initially, luckily it decided to perch up on a dead tree for everyone to get a decent look.
 |
| Lesser Spotted Woodpecker - female |
 |
| Black Woodpecker - male |
Bükki Nemzeti Park:
Zoltán took us up to the mountainous region close to the Slovakia border, the change of scenery gave us a different set of birds, such as Marsh Tits and Ravens, both quite numerous here.
 |
| Raven |
 |
| Marsh Tit |
Our main target here was the Wallcreeper, a winter visitor to Hungary, and one that often turns up around the cliffs at a disused quarry. It didn't actually take us that long to find our first Wallcreeper here, and we managed some decent views of the bird feeding around the walls and cliffs. Wallcreeper is such a unique species, being the sole member of the family Tichodromidae, there is no other bird on earth that looks remotely like it!
 |
| Wallcreeper |
John managed a another lifer here in form of a Grey-headed Woodpecker! Although it only gave distant and brief views, it was good enough for ID.
After the Wallcreeper we hiked up to the top of the old quarry hoping to search for Alpine Accentors, which also winters here. We scanned the rocky landscape with little luck at first, it took a while but finally Zoltán located a few feeding together, where we had fantastic view of them at close range on the top of the cliff!
 |
| Alpine Accentor |
Our final target of the day was the Ural Owl, which Zoltán knows of a spot. As we drove higher it got a lot colder, and soon we were on a frosty forest trail, listening out for the owl. After waiting around in the freezing cold we finally heard the call of one from inside the forest, we moved in closer and finally I caught sight of it in among the trees, it wasn't a particularly great view but we could see the whole bird despite many twigs in-between. All in all a very successful day in the mountains!
 |
| Ural Owl |
Csongrád and Szeged:
The southern part of Hungary also have some large areas of marshes and fish ponds, having not been able to connect with any Red-breasted Geese around Hortobágyi National Park, Zoltán contacted his friend Zsolt that lives in the south, and he stated that he's seen a few Red-breasted Geese around the area. We drove all the way down there one day and met up with Zsolt in hope to find our target. The first area we tried was Csaj-tó, a few very large fish ponds (more like lakes if you ask me) where we were to scan for waterfowls. Other then a distant female Red-crested Pochard, a pair of Slavonian Grebe plus a single Black-necked Grebe gave good views, it was particularly good when the two swam close together that you can see all the diagnostic features of both species.
 |
| Slavonian Grebe (left) & Black-necked Grebe (right) |
Eurasian Coots and Pygmy Cormorants were both quite numerous, although the latter mainly just gave fly-by views, I was still happy that they came quite close for a good shot.
 |
| Eurasian Coot |
 |
| Pygmy Cormorant |
The lake was bustling with thousands of Greylag and Greater White-fronted Geese, and that attracted the attention of numerous White-tailed Eagles, which sometimes cause mass panic of the geese. Many Western Marsh Harriers were around.
 |
| White-tailed Eagle - juvenile |
 |
| Western Marsh Harrier - dark morph male I believe |
More and more geese flew in from different directions, and Zsolt managed to catch a single Red-breasted Goose flying in with the Greater White-fronted Geese! It was a fairly decent flight view, and everyone was happy to connect with this main target. We later got better views of up to 4 birds on another pond, with better light we can truly admire their colours under the sun. While it was too far for my camera, the scope views we had was very good, we even managed to find a few Lesser White-fronted Geese among the large flock of Greater White-fronted Geese!
 |
| Red-breasted Geese |
A few Little Gulls were circling around close, this was my closest encounter to date, and I was happy to be able to get some good photos of both adults in winter plumage and first winter birds. I do love the adult's dark underwing, and no doubt they are one of my favourite gull species.
 |
| Little Gull - adult |
 |
| Little Gull - 1st winter |
Late afternoon we headed closer to Szeged towards Fehér-tó, along the reed beds we searched for Eurasian Penduline Tits but with no luck despite perfect conditions, a female Bearded Tit was slightly more obliging and gave decent views, it was a shame no males came in. There weren't that many birds around except for a large flock of Greenfinches and a few Linnets.
 |
| Bearded Tit - female |
 |
| Linnet |
The observation tower at Fehér-tó was perfect for observing Common Cranes, we saw quite a few of them throughout the day, but it was quite the experience to see over 10,000 of these returning to their roost, there were just trains of cranes as far as you can see. Zsolt stated by mid-winter the peak count here can reach over 30,000 individuals!
 |
| Common Crane |
Apuseni Natural Park, Romania:
On our last proper birding day we drove almost 3 hours east over the border to Romania, our destination was the mountainous area of Apuseni Natural Park in the county of Bihor. Zoltán wanted to try and find some species difficult or not found in Hungary, namely Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker, Spotted Nutcracker and Crested Tit. There was an outside chance for Hazel Grouse and Eurasian Pygmy-Owl, but I didn't think they were that realistic a target to be honest. Along a beautiful stream, we had our first White-throated Dippers, a species I am always happy to see.
 |
| White-throated Dipper |
We reached Padiş and started walking one of the trail leading into the pine forest, but things were dead quiet with the exception for a few Goldcrests.
 |
| Goldcrest |
It took a long while before we suddenly heard a woodpecker call, the call sounded very similar Great Spotted Woodpecker, the habitat however made that quite unlikely. Sure enough, I spotted a Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker on a tree trunk, and we were blessed with prolonged views of this beautiful bird!
 |
| Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker |
Despite the drizzle, we saw a few more birds on the way back, including Coal Tits and Crested Tits, this was the first time I have seen the nominate race of the Coal Tit. And this was only my second encounter with the Crested Tit, and I was happy to be able to get a few better photos of this species.
 |
| Coal Tit |
 |
| Crested Tit |
We tried another spot to look for Crossbills, but we only managed brief views. We did however hear 2 Ural Owls calling in the forest, despite not getting any views it was nice to hear their haunting calls echo through the pine forest.
Summary:
With a good variety of residents and wintering species, Hungary in winter was certainly an interesting experience. It may not be the most exciting birding, sometimes even frustrating how few birds there were around, but it also made finding those targets that much sweeter. Having recorded 129 species in total, it probably was not a bad count for this time of the year, I had 15 lifers and some much better views of certain species I have seen before. I will like to thank Zoltán for his guiding, his local knowledge certainly helped us get a lot of species we wouldn't otherwise, I highly recommend his service to anyone wanting to bird Hungary. I will also like to thank Zsolt for his guiding that one day around southern Hungary. John and Steve provided plenty of good laughter throughout the trip, it was wonderful to be able to catchup with old friends and make new friends along the way. Hopefully I will be able to return to Hungary in spring sometime in the future.
Trip report: https://ebird.org/tripreport/435413?view=checklists
