24 July 2018 - The new findings of the ornithologist Budimir Rašović, who promoted the book "Birds of Herceg Novi and Igalo" last year, suggest that there are two other species of birds on the coast of Igalo and Sutorinsko polje.
In the last 15 years, he has recorded 159 species in Igalo and Herceg Novi, and he has put them all in a valuable book, a unique little bird atlas. After the promotion of the book, he continued the research, expecting that the number of species should increase with further monitoring and study. That just happened this spring, Rašović says for Radio Jadran: “Between Stara Banja and Tito's villa, on April 29 this year, at the place where a small flows into the sea, I photographed the beautiful black-headed gull (larus melanocephalus). For the first time, I see this species in this area so that the number of bird species has increased to 160. This species is on our land because of bird migration, and is very similar to the larus ribidundus, says Rašović.
Although the males of this species have black heads to be more beautiful and attractive to females in spring, the black-headed gull has a more intense color, a larger black cap, red legs and a red beak, he explains. During birdwatching from April-May, in Sutorinsko polje, on April 9, with ornithologist Mihajlo Jovićević, he photographed one of the heaviest subspecies of the white wagtail family, motacila flava xanthophryx.
This bird family has more than 10 subspecies that can be seen during spring migrations in the fields and similar terrains. The characteristic of this subspecies is that it has a yellow eyebrow on the black head. So far, I have never seen this subspecies in Montenegro, and I have no information that someone else has recorded it - says Budimir Rašović. This data is encouraging and Rašović hopes to encourage young biologists and enthusiasts from this area to look more closely at birds. He sent us photographs of the gulls and the white wagtails from Sutorinsko polje.
Budimir found the inspiration for his research and this line of work in Jozef Kovač, a man who similarly unified bird species in the city under Orjen.
The most interesting species he registered was the Zitting cisticola, which he observed at the mouth of Sutorina. In addition, the book lists three other very important and rare species, also registered at the mouth of Sutorine: European roller, Olive-tree warbler and Eleonora's falcon. These birds are of great importance not only for Herceg Novi but for Montenegro as there are only a few of them.
The most frequent species in the territory of the Herceg Novi Municipality is the House Sparrow as the most common. When it comes to nesting, the most common is the family of Shrike.
Rašović lives and works in Podgorica, and for the past 20 years he has been studying and photographing birds. He graduated from the University of Montenegro at the Faculty of Mathematics and Technology at the Department of Environmental Protection. He is a member of the Bird Protection and Study Center of Montenegro. His work was also recognized by "BirdLife International", and he was one of two ornithologists from Montenegro whose data was used by this international organization for the protection of birds when compiling the last red list of endangered birds in the world. In addition to the area around Herceg Novi and Tivat, Budimir Rašović also studies the ornithofauna of the Ćemovsko field, but also in Northern Montenegro.
Source: radiojadran.com
