Kızılırmak Delta Bird Sanctuary, a scenic wetland in UNESCO Tentative List of World Heritage, is one of the most popular destinations today for storks during the season of migration when they fly north.
The peaceful sanctuary that spans a area of 56,000 hectares (138,379 acres) in the northern province of Samsung, vibrate with the rattle of beaks when storks descend to their nests in forests around the delta.
The birds are concentrated in a section of delta in Bafra district. Doğanca district, home to 60 stork nests in a two acre area called “Stork Village”, with some trees hosting up to four nests. storks spend spring and summer in the sanctuary before hitting the road in August for warmer places.
The sanctuary is also home to an observation tower for birdwatchers while the signs dotting the area give information to visitors looking to see storks.
Although most are white, black storks, a rare visitor to Turkey, have also been sighted in the delta in these last years. Unlike their parents white, carnivorous species stay away from residential areas and choose forests and wetlands as nests, feasting on fish, reptiles and insects in and around the lakes. For Hasan Uncu, a local farmer, the storks are their “biggest helpers”. “They eat insects harmful to our rice fields, clean them for us, in a way. we are happy to live together with them,” Uncu told Anadolu Agency (AA).
The sanctuary is home to about 150,000 birds at different times, especially during the migration season, when the birds cross the Black Sea. the area East home to 364 different species of birds and also serves home for many endemic plants and fish and colonies of wild horses.
swamps like the Kızılırmak delta, a hub for migratory birds, are threatened by the climate crisis and human intervention. Turkey has taken a step up preservation efforts in the past two decades but the delta still runs the risk of decreases due to drought aggravated by the climate crisis.
The Kızılırmak Delta is one of the 14 sites designated as Ramsar Sites, named after a international treaty for conservation and sustainability use of wetlands Turkey is a party for.
Turkey welcomes more more than 400 different types of birds each year during their migration. Storks are among the most “loved” by Turks public. In Turkish culture, storks are harbingers of spring and are respectfully cared for for. The country even has a dating hospital back in the ottoman times, still in operation, which caters specifically to injured or sick storks. The tendency of storks to find a fixed place for themselves each year also keep them more glue with people. They rarely change the location of their nests, unlike other birds.
