Bird Sightings in Zakynthos, Greece

June 22, 2023

For our day in Zakynthos, we were hoping to visit some local birding trails. However, after doing some research we didn't find any that were reasonably close to the port, so we ended up taking the nearby Monastery Trail instead with the goal of making it up to the Stone Chair before heading back. While walking in the city we spotted plenty of pigeons, as well as several House Martins flying to their nests clinging to the undersides of balconies. We saw Barn Swallows sitting on power lines and ledges, and found a Eurasian Collared Dove as we were getting closer to the countryside. For a while, though, we stopped seeing many birds around us as we followed the road farther and farther from town. There were some gulls far out over the water, but that was about it. Then we got to the base of Mt. Skopos, which was where the REAL hike began. As we ascended, we spotted a pair of Golden Eagles soaring around the nearby cliffs, as well as some Sardinian Warblers in the olive trees along the path. We had started our excursion around 9:00, and it was nearing noon on a sunny shadeless path as we continued to trek upwards. The climb was getting difficult, but we kept climbing in hopes of finding the Stone Chair. We made it up to some kind of abandoned concrete structure which turned out not to be our destination, so we kept on climbing. The slope got worse, and it felt like it was steeper than 45 degrees by that point. We made it up one final stretch, and… still no Stone Chair in sight. There was, however, an amazing view of the sea and the island, and we decided to stop there. We took pictures, rested a bit, and got a final bird for the day: Hooded Crows in the valley below. Then we trekked back down, satisfied with our day, and returned to the boat to identify the birds we had pictures of.