Wintering Waterbirds in Sarikum Lake

Abstract

Sarikum Lake Wildlife Protected Area is an important stopover site for waterbirds in Central Black Sea Region. Particularly, as a result of freezing fresh water in inland, many bird species use coastal wetlands to spend the winter. The aim of this study was to determine the wintering waterbird species at Sarikum Lake and to evaluate the importance of Sarikum Lake for waterbirds. In this study a 17 years data obtained by point counts from the mid-winter waterbird census between the years 1993 and 2018 was evaluated. According to this study, 56 wintering waterbird species belonging to 14 families and 10 orders, have been determined so far. Six of these species listed as globally threatened according to the IUCN criteria. maximum of 38 waterbird species and a maximum of 18,112 individuals were counted in a specific year. The most dominant species were Anas platyrhmehos, Anas crecca, Aythya fuligula, Fulica atra and Aythya ferina, respectively.