Birds in Armenia - Useful Resources

When planning a birding trip to Armenia make sure you bring your own equipment! Although it's hard to imagine a birder visiting a Armenia Birding - Trumpeter Finch - Bucanetes githagineus crassirostris

Armenia Birding - Trumpeter Finch - Bucanetes githagineus crassirostris

country without their own tools, it should be born in mind that spotting scopes are not sold or provided for rent in Armenia, and while available, binoculars and tripods are barely, if at all, suitable for bird observations. Bird books are not sold in Armenia (with one exception). Some general country and road maps are available in Yerevan's major bookstores. There is a very limited selection of quality film, digital cameras, memory cards, rechargeable batteries and chargers available in local camera stores and all of these are sold only in Yerevan. The same applies for field footwear, clothing, backpacks and other field equipment and gear. Insect repellents, sunblocks and a range of medicines and items of personal needs are available in all larger towns.

Some birders travel with a weighty 'library' including family monographs, detailed ID articles from bird magazines etc, which is a good idea if you have the space in your luggage. However most people prefer to take fewer books in their luggage, and the list below shows some crucial accessories to birder's optical equipment:

Collins Bird Guide - currently the most informative and useful choice for the country

Field Guide to the Birds of the Middle East - an equally good option

Birds of Europe - albeit not covering few local taxa (e.g. Mountain Chiffchaff, Mongolian Finch), this is still very useful in Armenia, and arguably contains the most accurate and realistic illustrations throughout

The Macmillan Birder's Guide to European and Middle Eastern Birds - covers identification of many tricky taxa in great detail and is an excellent companion to one of the above books

Songbirds of Turkey - very informative, essential for somebody with an interest in morphological peculiarities of regional subspecies

A field Guide to Birds of Armenia - this is the only bird field guide sold in Yerevan's (major) bookstores

The Bradt Travel Guide - Armenia with Nagorno Karabagh - although aimed primarily at the traveller with an interest in ancient historical monuments and monasteries, it is nevertheless very useful for every visitor to the country, since it contains a lot of wide ranging practical information. It is a must have for birders traveling on their own

Lonely Planet Guide - Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan

Stone Garden Guide: Armenia and Karabagh

Topography road maps - these are part of the published guide to Armenian monasteries Rediscovering Armenia by Kiesling & Kojian and are available for free download. The most detailed maps of the country, based on Soviet military topography map with toponyms retyped in English, scale 1:250 000

Birds of Armenia map - road map in English, includes basic elevation map, waterbodies and gazetteer of geographical coordinates for the covered locations, scale 1:500 000

Armenia-Atlas of roads by USAID - a very useful bilingual (Armenian and English) booklet, scale 1:200 000, unfortunately not widely available

OSME - Ornithological Society of the Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia. Reports on Armenian avifauna are regularly published in OSME's journal Sandgrouse and posted on its mailing list Middle Eeast Bird Net

Trip Reports from Armenia:

Birding Tour operators. Up to now only two British operators offer birding tours to Armenia, Birdwatching Breaks and Birdquest. Their itineraries cover almost all important birding sites in Armenia with total trip lists ranging from 195 to over 220 species of birds observed. The interest in running birding tours to Armenia has been expressed by several leading European companies, but the cause of the paucity of actual visitors is merely the near-lack of competent local guides. Recently Birdfinders, inspired by trip reports from Armenia, made their first visits to the country.

Some of the local tour agencies advertise birdwatching tours in Armenia on their websites, but to our knowledge, none of them have so far run even a single tour purely concentrating on birds. Some local 'guides' are also known to occasionally offer their services in showing Armenia's special birds in the wrong habitats or in the country's state reserves. In fact, the best Armenian birding sites are outside of boundaries of national state reserves! When (if) hiring a local guide, make sure in advance he/she knows the birds concerned (not just their names), appropriate sites and habitats in a particular season. If you need a local guide and have difficulties in finding one, feel free to write us for an advice.

Jean-Michael Breider's Portfolio - great bird photographs from the Caucasus with Armenia

Surfbirds - Nik Borrow's (Birdquest) bird photographs from Armenia; type in "Armenia" to search online photo gallery

Cilicia.com - collection of useful links and resources about Armenia

Armenia Information - extensive information about Armenia. Includes lists and contact details for hotels and B&B type accommodation in all regions of Armenia

Tacentral - similar to the above, with list of various regional maps

Falling Rain Genomics - Global Gazetteer. The worldwide index, includes directory of regions, cities and towns in Armenia

General Maps of Armenian Provinces

GoogleEarth - A 3D Interface to the Planet. Could be a very useful tool in planning a birding trip. Unfortunately many custom locations are not precisely positioned and feature old toponyms, not encountered on modern maps. It should therefore be used together with a reliable gazetter, such as one mentioned above

Wishup Adventures - a local tour operator offering various (non-birding) tours to remote areas of Armenia. Of interest to birders is Wishup's 4WD car (with optional driver) and camping gear rental service. The website is largely in Russian, but inquiries can readily be emailed in English

TourismArmenia - provides comfortable 4WD jeeps (with driver) for affordable prices. Visit their website, or write at info(AT)tourismarmenia.org

Armenian Dragonflies - dedicated to Armenian Dragonflies and Damselflies, contains photographs, updated checklist and distribution maps for each species