Field updates
500,000 birds counted!
Three days with over 90,000 birds each have carried the Batumi count past half a million, as Honey Buzzards fill the skies and more species are still to come.
Field updates
250,000 birds counted!
A quarter of a million birds counted this season, with Honey Buzzards making up 98% of the total while Black Kites and Marsh Harriers remain unusually scarce.
Field updates
Our first 10,000+ day of the season!
Honey Buzzards have arrived in force: nearly 19,300 birds crossed the Batumi bottleneck during the first 10,000+ day of the 2026 season.
Field updates
1.5 Million raptors!
For the first time in BRC history, we have recorded a staggering 1.5 million raptors in a single autumn season, a true milestone after 17 years of counting!
Field updates
1,422,172 and counting
We’ve broken the season record of 1,422,171 raptors set in 2021! At 14:52 today, the 1,422,172nd bird crossed our transect line to the east - a juvenile Black Kite making its way through the misty clouds.
Field updates
1,000,000 raptors — already!
It was a day full of suspense. We only needed a little over 10.000 more birds. We extracted every single one of them out of the bright blue sky.
Field updates
Half a million raptors!
Today we counted over 100K birds, which means we reached the half a million milestone!
Field updates
Already 400K raptors during the 3rd and final Spring Count
The 3rd pilot Spring Count is already halfway through, we have been counting for one and a half months and have already counted 400k raptors this season.
Field updates
1 Million Raptors!
Yesterday's highlights were the more than 100,000 raptors counted by both stations and the almost 1,700 eagles on Station 1, but we fell just short of the million.
Field updates
Harrier Madness
The best day of the season on Station 2! So far.
Field updates
500,000 Raptors counted!
The birds may not care, but we do: today we passed the 500,000 raptors mark!
Field updates
The first 100,000
We have now been counting for 12 days and yesterday we passed the first milestone of the season: we have counted the first 100,000 birds! The start of the season has been everything but standard this autumn.
Field updates
Half a Million
Today added another 75.000 to the tally. Our volunteers have been counting for exactly 3 weeks now, and have reached a season total of 498.928 raptors! Almost half a million, right? Six more weeks to go, bring it!
Field updates
1 million raptors within 7 weeks!
After 7 weeks of counting in autumn 2015 we reached again the season total of 1 million raptors! Steppe Buzzard migration finally kicked off and we counted over 120 000 birds during 3rd, 4th and 5th of October.
Field updates
500.000 within first 3 weeks
The first 3 weeks of raptor migration counting in Batumi are over and we can already say that the start of this season was a big surprise.
Field updates
African-Eurasian day record from Batumi: 264.891 raptors
On 2nd October 2014 our counting team witnessed the largest passage of raptors ever seen outside of the Panamerican Flyway and counted 264.891 raptors in a single day!
Field updates
African-Eurasian Day Record: 179,342 Honey Buzzards
Few days ago on August 30th we were happy to report to you our all time record of 99,000 Honey Buzzards passing our observatories.
Field updates
Day record of 99.000 Honey Buzzards on 30th August 2012
The unique convergence of migratory raptors in Georgia is strongly shaped by the weather conditions in the region, something the BRC team has long observed firsthand.
Field updates
Two weeks of counting ... 100.000 Honey Buzzards!
it has been about two weeks since the start of count and in that time approx. 100.000 Honey Buzzards Pernis aviporus passed the Batumi bottleneck. This included over 60.000 individuals on August 24th.