Bird Sightings in Athens, Greece

June 18, 2023

During our first afternoon abroad, Domani explored Athens with several classmates. This mostly occurred in an urban environment. After exploring a street market, we journeyed by foot to the Athens National Garden in the center of the city. There, we saw various exhibits of both domesticated and exotic animals–but in addition, some wild birds, including Monk Parakeets. These invasive parakeets are native to South America, but feral populations can be found living in many of Europes capital cities, including Athens, Rome, Paris, and London.

June 19, 2023

Although much of the day was spent in the museum and the bus, we were still able to identify a handful of interesting birds in Athens. When the tour bus made a stop at the Olympic Stadium, the Monk Parakeets could be seen flying in the trees nearby. During the visit to the Acropolis of Athens there were plenty of pigeons around, but a particularly exciting bird was spotted on the way back down the hill. On the ground among the olive trees, there was a bird somewhat reminiscent of a woodpecker with a small crest, pale brown on most of its body but with a black and white ladder pattern on its wings. Since some woodpeckers are known to forage for insects on the ground, we initially thought this might be one, but we later identified it as a Eurasian Hoopoe, which is actually in the same clade as Kingfishers and bee-eaters.