Bird Spotting
Hot Spot: The Straits of Messina Southern Italy
Calabria is home to many of the rarest animals, birds and reptiles in the world.
The Mediterranean Sea is a formidable barrier for broad-winged birds, which depend on thermals and updrafts for soaring. Consequently, most of raptors and storks are obliged to make use of land bridges, such as the main "bottleneck areas" of Gibraltar and Bosphorus.
Species with a low wing loading are involved, such as Honey Buzzards, Black Kites, Marsh Harriers, Kestrels and Hobbies; the majority of these birds breed in central and northern Europe. Recently. Ornithologists counted 3100 migrating raptors in this area during the months of April and May.
The birdlife in Calabria also includes the black woodpecker, Bonelli's eagle, goshawk, peregrine falcon, the eagle owl, sandpipers, redshank, the collared pratincole and other waders as well as duck.
In spring a relatively strong migration of raptors is also noticed in the central Medierranean, when fairly substantial numbers leave the African continent in the vicinity of Cap Bon in Tunisia and enter Europe via the Aeolian Islands and the Straits of Messina to Calabria, Italy.
