Eco Hvar

Bird sightings 2016

Steve Jones has kindly provided a listing of the birds sighted during 2016, with English, Latin and Croatian names..

Chaffinch, 22nd November 2016 Chaffinch, 22nd November 2016 Photo: Steve Jones

25th November 2016, Note from Steve: I think there are about 67 confirmed sightings on the island (99% between ferry port and Jelsa) and oddly coming back from the supermarket at lunchtime another to be added but as I was driving. I couldn’t be 100% sure on the species although I would suggest it was a Snipe.

The list includes the Black-winged Stilt, - not seen by me but your friends from Stari Grad, who saw them in Vrboska twice.

I have listed Raven (didn’t see the bird, but both myself and a friend heard them in September on the old road to Hvar past Brusje).

I have sorted them in alphabetical and not in the order seen and hopefully Croatian names as best I can – feel free to come back on any glaring errors.

There have been other species seen but I am not 100% sure on ID, and I know of at least three species seen in previous years and not in this one.

I think it would be wrong to associate one year's observations with a more general picture about wildlife losses. It may be that there were no greater species numbers 10 or 20 years ago than there are now. It may be my lack of knowledge on what to expect to see here. I am really surprised as to why there have been no Woodpeckers, or at least none that I have seen. I am also surprised not to see any Winter Thrushes (Song Thrush, Redwing, Fieldfare), perhaps this is a location/milder climate thing, and they have never been resident. Seabirds are another mystery, coming out on the ferry numerous times from Split and nothing that stands out. Other than Herring Gulls and the odd Cormorant that is it. I may have been spoilt by being so close to Dawlish Warren in Devon which has a huge variety all year round. Had I had data for a much longer period I might have been able to draw some conclusions.

Alpine swift - čiopa bijela - apus melba, tachymarptis melba. Sightings: September 2016;

Bee-eater  - pčelarica -  merops apiaster. Sightings: August 2016; April 2016;

Black redstart - mrka crvenrepka - phoenicurus ochruros. Sightings: March 2016; February 2016;

Blackbird - crni kos - turdus merula. Video by Zlatko Torbašinović; Sightings: February 2016; January 2016; early January 2016;

Blackcap - crnokapa grmuša - sylvia atricapilla. Sightings: September 2016; March 2016; February 2016; January 2016; Autumn/winter 2015;

Black-eared wheateater - primorska bjeloguza - oenanthe hispanica

Black-headed bunting - crnoglava strnadica -  emberiza melanocephala

Black-headed gull - riječni galeb - chroicocephalus ridibundus. Video by Zlatko Torbašinović. Sightings: February 2016;

Black-winged stilt - vlastelica - himantopus himantopus. Sightings: April 2016;

Blue tit - plavetna sjenica - parus ceruleus. Video of song and alarm call by chainsawbeks. Sightings: February 2016; January 2016;

Buzzard - škanjac - buteo buteo. Sightings: August-September 2016; February 2016; January 2016; early January 2016;

Chaffinch - zeba - fringilla coelebs gengleri. Video by Zlatko Torbašinović; Sightings: April 2016; March 2016; February 2016; January 2016; early January 2016;

Chiffchaff - zviždak - phylloscopus collybita collybita. Sightings: March 2016; February 2016;

Cirl bunting - crnogrla strnadica - emberiza cirlus. Sightings: September 2016; March 2016; February 2016;

Collared dove - gugutka - streptopelia decaocto

Cormorant - veliki vranac, kormoran - phalacrocorax carbo. Video, by Branimir Devilnightmare;

Corn bunting - velika strnadica - emberiza calandra. Sightings: April 2016;

Crane - ždral - grus grus. Sightings: November 2016;

Cuckoo - kukavica  - cuculus canorus. Sightings: April 2016;

Dunnock - sivi popić - prunella modularis. Sightings: March 2016;

Eagle owl (European) - buljina, sova ušara  - bubo bubo. Sightings: January 2016

Garden warbler - siva grmuša - sylvia borin. Sightings: August 2016;

Golden oriole - zlatna vuga - oriolus oriolus. Sightings: August 2016; April 2016

Golden plover - troprsti zlatar - pluvialis apricaria.

Goldfinch - češljugar, gardelin, kamjolac, ciganče, štiglić - carduelis carduelis. Video by Zlatko Torbašinović; Sightings: February 2016;

Goshawk - jastreb kokošar - family accipitridae. Sightings: August-September 2016;

Great tit - velika sjenica - parus major newtoni. Video of call by Steve Hawkeye. Sightings: March 2016; February 2016; January 2016;

Greenfich - zelendur - carduelis chlorisž. Sightings: September 2016; March 2016;

Grey heron - siva čaplja - ardea cinerea. Video by Luka Hercigonja: Sightings: January 2016;

Grey wagtail - gorska pastirica - motacilla cinerea. Sightings: January 2016;

Hen harrier - strnarica - circus cyaneus. Sightings: January 2017;

Herring gull - srebrnasti galeb - larus argentatus

Honey buzzard - škanjac osaš - pemis apivorus. Sightings: August-September 2016;

Hooded crow - siva vrana - corvus cornix. Video by Zlatko Torbašinović. Sightings: February 2016; January 2016; early January 2016;

Hoopoe - pupavac - upupa epops. Sightings: September 2016; April 2016; March 2016;

House martin - piljak - delichon urbica. Sightings: September 2016;

House sparrow - vrabac - passer domesticus

Icterine warbler - žuti voljić -  hippolais icterina. Sightings: September 2016;

Kestrel - vjetruša - falco tinnunculus. Video by Zlatko Torbašinović. Sightings: April 2016;

Kingfisher - vodomar, vodomar ribar - alcedo atthis. Sightings: December 2016; April 2016;

Linnet - juričica - carduelis cannabina. Video by BHVSa. Sightings: April 2016;

Marsh harrier - eja močvarica - circus aeruginosus. Sightings: August-September 2016;

Melodious warbler - kratkokrili voljić - hippolais polyglotta

Mistle thrush - drozd imelaš - turdus viscivorus. Video by slpanjkovic. Sightings: December 2016;

Nightingale - slavuj - luscinia megarhynchos. Video by Zlatko Torbašinović. Sightings: June 2016; April 2016;

Nightjar - leganj, noćna lasta - caprimulgus europaeus. Sightings: April 2016; Autumn/winter 2015;

Pheasant - fazan - phasianus coichicus

Pied wagtail - bijela pastirica - motacilla alba. Sightings: January 2016;

Pigeon - golub - family: columbidae

Raven - gavran - corvus corax

Red-backed shrike - rusi svračak - lanius collurio

Redstart - šumska crvenrepka - phoenicurus phoenicurus

Robin - crvendač, čučka crvendać - erithacus rubecula. Video by Zlatko Torbašinović Sightings:. January 2016;

Rock dove / feral pigeon - divlji golub - columba livia

Sand martin - bregunica - riparia riparia

Sardinian warbler - crnoglava grmuša - sylvia melanocephala

Scarce swallowtail - Sightings: April 2016;

Scops owl - ćuk - otus scops. Sightings: March 2016;

Serin - žutarica - serinus serinus. Sightings: September 2016; March 2016; February 2016; January 2016;

Short-toed eagle - Sightings: August-September 2016;

(Snipe - šljuka kokošica - gallinago gallinago. Sightings:  November 2016; - with hindsight, Steve felt this sighting was probably a woodcock. The first confirmed sighting of a snipe came in February 2018)

Spanish sparrow - španjolski vrabac - passer hispaniolensis

Sparrowhawk - kobac -  accipiter nisus. Sightings: December 2016; August-September 2016; March 2016; February 2016; January 2016;

Spotted flycatcher - siva muharica - muscicapa striata

Subalpine warbler - bjelobrka grmuša - sylvia cantillans. Sightings: March 2016;

Swallow - lastavica - hirundo rustica. Sightings: September 2016; Summer 2016; March 2016;

Swift - crna čiopa - apus apus. Sightings: September 2016; April 2016; October 2015;

Tawny pipit - primorska trepteljka - anthus campestris

Tree pipit - prugasta trepteljka - anthus trivialis

Turtle dove - grlica - streptopelia turtur

Wheatear, black-eared - mediteranska bjelka - oenanthe hispanica. Sightings: September 2016; April 2016; March 2016;

Whinchat - smeđoglavi batić - saxicola rubetra. Video, by Branimir Devilnightmare. Sightings: September 2016;

Whitethroat - grmuša pjenica - sylvia communis

Woodchat shrike - riđoglavi svračak - lanius senator. Sightings: April 2016;

Wren - palčić - troglodytes troglodytes.

Yellow wagtail - žuta pastirica - motacilla flava.

 © Steve Jones 2016

For more of Steve's beautiful nature pictures, see his personal pages: Bird Pictures on Hvar 2017, and Butterflies of Hvar

Related items

back to top
You are here: Home environment articles Nature Watch Bird sightings 2016

Eco Environment News feeds

  • More than 1m cars sold in UK each year too big to fit typical parking space

    Campaign network calls on government to prioritise smaller cars and introduce higher charges for SUV owners

    More than 1m cars too big to fit in parking spaces are being sold in the UK each year, and numbers are growing, research has found.

    A trend for cars bigger than the average urban parking space means new vehicles are outgrowing towns and cities.

    Continue reading...

  • Greece’s Aegean islands reel from ‘lake of mud’ flash floods before Easter rush

    Authorities race to complete clean-up operation after devastation from gales and heaviest rainfall in 20 years

    People on the Aegean islands, more used in April to the sight and scent of spring’s blossoms, have been left reeling from flash floods spurred by typhoon-strength gales, with authorities calling a state of emergency in some of Greece’s most popular destinations less than three weeks before Easter.

    “It’s a total catastrophe and it happened in just two hours,” said Costas Bizas, the mayor of Paros, the island worst hit by weather not seen in decades. “We need all the help we can get.”

    Continue reading...

  • Musical vans, school oaths and civic pride: how an Indian city beat the litter

    Indore in Madhya Pradesh was once dotted with fetid waste dumps but after a huge campaign is now virtually spotless

    This is what happens usually in India: a politician wakes up and launches a cleanliness “drive” with fanfare. They ostentatiously start sweeping a street and speak solemnly about civic duty while the media take photos. The next day it’s over and things go back to how they were before.

    But not in Indore in Madhya Pradesh. From 2017, when it won the prize for being the cleanest city in the country, it kept winning for eight straight years, until last year.

    Continue reading...

  • Country diary: On it flows, this lick of flame through the forest | Merryn Glover

    Badenoch, Cairngorms: As we pause above the river, a sudden flash catches our eyes – a red squirrelis rippling along the branches below

    It’s early morning and the sky is a billowing parachute of blue, bursting its seams with sunshine and the fluffiest white clouds. A cool wind blows up Loch Insh, roughening the water and bearing the scent of spring. From the island, a song thrush pours out all the trills, beeps and chirps of its bravura performance, oystercatchers pipe and a woodpecker hammers, the sound echoing around the hills.

    In the forest, the birch trees carry no hint of leaves but are shaggy with moss and lichen, their twigs falling in soft fronds, wine-coloured and beaded. The trunks are irregular, pitched at wild angles, curving and bent, sometimes two or three growing from the same base. In contrast, the pale aspens grow up as straight as telephone poles, sharpening to a point at the top. All their branches rise in upturned spikes, bare but for the tiny ink strokes of twigs. At the centre of the woods is a stand of oaks, vast and spreading, last year’s dry leaves still spilling across the moss and the crushed bracken.

    Continue reading...

  • Plan for Norfolk megafarm rejected by councillors over environmental concerns

    Application, submitted by Cranswick, would have created one of the largest industrial poultry and pig units in Europe

    A megafarm that would have reared almost 900,000 chickens and pigs at any one time has been blocked by councillors in Norfolk over climate change and environmental concerns.

    Councillors on King’s Lynn and West Norfolk borough council unanimously rejected an application to build what would have been one of the largest industrial poultry and pig units in Europe.

    Continue reading...

  • Top genome scientists to map DNA sequence of invertebrate winner 2025

    Sanger Institute’s Tree of Life team say genomes offer invaluable insight into how species will fare under climate crisis

    “We are following the ‘invertebrate of the year’ series with bated breath,” began the email that arrived in the Guardian’s inbox last week.

    Mark Blaxter leads the Sanger Institute’s Tree of Life programme, a project that sequences species’ DNA to understand the diversity and origins of life on Earth. But far more importantly, Blaxter and his team are superfans of our invertebrate of the year competition and have offered to map the genome sequence of whoever wins this year.

    Continue reading...

  • Leading the charge: how a drive for electric vehicles is cleaning up Nepal

    With air pollution causing a fifth of deaths in Nepal, growing EV use could add nearly three years to Kathmandu residents’ lives

    In a rundown hangar in the heart of Kathmandu, the remains of a dozen electric trolley buses stand abandoned and corroding. Caked in dust and bird-droppings and lined with rubbish, they are a reminder of a bold experiment, launched 50 years ago, to electrify the city’s public transport system. Down the side of one is written, “Keep me alive”.

    Today, that plea is being heard. More than 70% of four-wheeled passenger vehicles – largely cars and minibuses – imported into Nepal last year were electric, one of the highest rates in the world. The figure reflects a remarkable growth in the use of electric vehicles (EVs), which saw the country import more than 13,000 between July 2023 and 2024, up from about 250 in 2020-21.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘Cathedral of crap’: is this the world’s most beautiful sewage treatment plant?

    Its lab buildings have a rusticated heft while its sleek, paper-thin louvre windows are reminiscent of a luxury ocean-liner. More importantly, the people of Arklow in Ireland can finally go swimming without fear of floaters

    It is not often that the arts section of a newspaper finds itself concerned with the aesthetic merits of a sewage works. But then there are few facilities designed with the finesse of the new €139m (£117m) wastewater treatment plant in Arklow, which stands like a pair of minty green pagodas on the edge of the Irish Sea. Nor are there many architectural firms who have thought so deeply about the poetics of effluent as Clancy Moore.

    “There’s a wonderful passage in Ulysses,” says practice co-founder, Andrew Clancy, summoning James Joyce as we tiptoe along a metal gantry above a gigantic vat of bubbling brown sludge. “The narrator turns on the tap to fill a kettle, sparking a lengthy rumination on where the water comes from, how it flows from reservoirs, through aqueducts and pipes, describing each step in minute detail, from the volume of the tanks to the dimensions and cost of the plumbing.”

    Continue reading...

  • Are rising lower respiratory infection hospital admissions linked to dirty air?

    As LRIs put pressure on health services, a Spanish-led study examines what role exposure to air pollution may play

    The Covid crisis highlighted gaps in our understanding of the role that air pollution plays in infections.

    A flurry of studies carried out during and after the crisis allowed a UK government advisory group to conclude that long-term exposure to air pollution may contribute to worse coronavirus symptoms. The group offered examples that included a study of more than 3 million people in Denmark that showed air pollution added to the risk of death or hospital admission with severe Covid, especially in the least well off.

    Continue reading...

  • Weatherwatch: Mixed woodlands can help temper weather extremes, study shows

    Species-rich plot can produce cooling effect 4C greater than single-species plot

    Woodland with lots of different kinds of trees can do a good job of buffering heatwaves and extreme cold. Now a new study demonstrates that increasing the mix of species can help to mitigate climate extremes.

    Florian Schnabel, from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research in Leipzig, and colleagues measured forest temperatures over a six-year period at the world’s largest tree diversity experiment in Xingangshan, in subtropical China. Their results, published in Ecology Letters, show that species-rich plots provided the greatest cooling effect during summer, with cooling more than 4C greater in an experimental plot with 24 species compared with a single-species plot. Diverse plots also maintained more warmth under the tree canopy on cold nights and during winter.

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds

Copyright © 2025 Eco Hvar. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Orion Informatika.