The Muş Plain houses many bird species with its wetlands and rich flora, and as the weather cools down, the plain experiences an array of beautiful colors as birds migrate to hot zones.
The visual feast of the bird migration in the plain, which is one of the most important migration routes in Turkey, attracts great attention from nature observers and citizens.
The Demoiselle Crane Nature Foundation field observation team has been conducting research here for the last six years to determine the bird species that come to the Muş Plain in the spring and migrate in autumn.
The Demoiselle Crane Nature Foundation President Kasım Avci told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the field observation team has come to the plain in the early hours of the morning for the last month and has observed the journey of the birds.
Noting some birds migrate to the east while others fly to the south, Avci said, "We search for which birds nest and breed in the Muş Plain. Our aim is registering our work and making them valuable in the national and international area.""We have been researching about the potential of species in the wetlands of the Muş province for many years. In this plain, which is one of the three main migration routes in Turkey, we register migration in written and image forms. We will publish a book with this information. We analyze the species and search which ones pass through this region," he added.
Avci stressed that they discovered 37 bird species in the Muş Plain and ranked them: "Demoiselle cranes, great bustards, grey herons, little egrets, cattle egrets, long-legged buzzards, steppe eagles, accipiters, kestrels, spur-winged lapwings, sociable lapwings, red-necked grebes, ruddy shelducks, great cormorants, greylag goose, greater white-fronted gooses, gadwalls, picas, rooks, common starlings, ravens, carrion crows, common sandpipers, little stints, little ringed plovers, common swifts, rock doves, stock doves, common wood pigeons, little terns, lesser black-backed gulls, Lake Van gulls, Caspian gulls, Eurasian skylarks, crested larks and sparrows."
Ufuk Bayrak, from the field observation team, added that they have actively conducted work about the values of Muş in the field for years. "The Muş Plain is home to many bird species. Our aim is to protect them. We try to create awareness. The plain has great bird potential. We are here to register it."
Turgay Özlü also stated that they aim to develop awareness of birds and species.
