Wildlife of Hungary
Bird watching short break to Hungary
Hungary is a great place for birding. This short four-day break to the Bükk National Parkoffers some fanastic forest birdwatching. “Pre-breakfast walk at nearby lake with target bird species including Black and Grey Headed Woodpecker, red backed Shrike, and Barred Warbler. Full day in the Bukk National Park. Target species will include White Backed Woodpecker, Red Breasted and Collared Flycatcher, Honey Buzzard and Short Toed Eagle.”
Geography of Hungary (Wikipedia)
Slightly more than one half of Hungary’s landscape consists of flat to rolling plains of the Pannonian Basin: the most important plain regions include the Little Hungarian Plain in the west, and the Great Hungarian Plain in the southeast. The highest elevation above sea level on the latter is only 183 metres.
Transdanubia is a primarily hilly region with a terrain varied by low mountains. These include the very eastern stretch of the Alps, Alpokalja, in the west of the country, the Transdanubian Medium Mountains, in the central region of Transdanubia, and the Mecsek Mountains and Villány Mountains in the south. The highest point of the area is the Írott-k? in the Alps, at 882 metres.
The highest mountains of the country are located in the Carpathians: these lie in the northern parts, in a wide band along the Slovakian border (highest point: the Kékes at 1,014 m (3327 ft)).
List of national parks of Hungary
Hungary has 10 national parks, 145 minor nature reserves and 35 landscape protection areas. The Aggtelek and Hortobágy National Parks are also UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The Hortobágy is Hungary’s largest protected area, and the largest natural grassland in Europe.
Trip reports
Hungary Wildlife Tour - The Travelling Naturalist’s report of trip to Hungary
Birding and wildlife watching in Hungary
In Hungary, East meets West. This is true not only for the country’s geopolitical location, but also to its natural characters, its wildlife and vegetation. In the west and on the northern hills from the Bakony to the Zemplén Hills, there are extensive deciduous forests with many species of songbirds, large herds of elk, mountain sheep and wildboar. The rest of the country, most of which is the famous Great Plain harbors partially shifting sand dunes, numerous alkali lakes, fragments of mixed grass steppe and endless alkali steppe. These habitats offer some of the best birding places in Europe.
Nature holidays in Hungary
Birdwatching, bat-watching and Wildlife Holidays in Hungary
Wildife books about Hungary
The Nature Guide to the Hortobagy and Tisza River Floodplain, Hungary: (Crossbill Guides Foundation)
The Crossbill Guide to the Hortobágy National Park in Hungary is the first and only nature travel guidebook to cover all aspects of the nature and wildlife of Hungary’s most famous National Park. The flora, fauna, ecology and history of the great Hortobágy puszta is vividly described. Route descriptions (by car foot and bicycle) bring you to the best places and highlight all that can be seen along the way. The book also includes a range of practical tips for staying in the area and finding wildlife, including an extensive where-to-find-birds description.
For a comparatively small country, Hungary has a wide variety of habitats and many interesting and ornithologically important species, including Great Bustard, Imperial Eagle and Aquatic Warbler. This book covers 363 different species of bird, with detailed information on their status and distribution within the country. Each species is accompanied by a map. Hungary is becoming a popular destination for birdwatching and this guide is aimed at all visitors and people interested in Western Palearctic birds.
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With breathtaking views of the Himalayas, you can soar alongside Egyptian Vultures and Black Kites who will approach to take food out of your hand. They are specially trained rescue birds who can’t be returned to the wild. Among them is Kevin the young Egyptian Vulture, famous for his scrapes with Steppe Eagles. The ultimate aim of the venture is to draw attention to the serious decline of Asian vultures, being poisoned to extinction by vet-prescribed drug Diclofenac. Visit 
This year breeding conditions have been exceptionally good for budgerigars in Queensland, Australia. Heavy rain and river flooding revived the land, providing plenty of grass seeds for the birds to feast on. When all the available trees with the best nesting sites had been taken, budgerigars were laying their eggs on the ground. And now local people are marvelling at the unprecedented size of the flocks, turning the sky green. 
Customs officials first suspected the 22-year old Norwegian, who’d just stepped off a ferry from Denmark, when they spotted a tarantula scuttling inside his bag. They then noticed “his whole body was in constant motion”. The wriggling movement was due to the 14 baby royal pythons tucked away in socks strapped to the man’s torso. That wasn’t all: when the officials made him drop his trousers they found 10 cans taped to his legs, each containing an albino leopard gecko. As Norway bans the import of reptiles, including unendangered species like these, he has been fined 12,500 Norwegian crowns (£1,800). 
