The expanded center has been a dream of Leshem’s for over 20 years. The center will include an observation roof, two auditoriums, a museum, an education center and nesting boxes. The new $3 million ICSBM, to be shaped like a bird, is meant to raise awareness for the country’s bird tourism, education, conservation and research projects. It is for this reason that the main birding center in Israel is based here. This is something really special.”Įvery migration season, 500 million birds fly over Latrun, a strategic hilltop in the Ayalon Valley. You can see 540 species or 40,000 storks in one morning. “People in the bird business know that this is a place to come. “Birding is the story of the present,” says Leshem, a senior researcher in the department of zoology at Tel Aviv University. Leshem, the expert on all things bird related in Israel, says hardcore birders know that Israel is a hotspot for bird-watching but that reaching the greater recreational audiences is a central goal.

Separately, ground will be broken this year for a new ICSBM building at Latrun, and the first stages of a wetlands will take shape in central Tel Aviv. Each center will highlight education, research and conservation of a specific region and its birds. The five-year plan calls to improve some of the existing eight birding centers and build seven new ones. The Israeli government recently okayed a $10 million budget to revamp the national network of birding centers. Local relevancy? Send this article to your local pressĪ new report indicating that the international bird-watching community comprises some 100 million people has prompted private and governmental Israeli organizations to put more resources into birding tourism.Write about and link to this article on your blog.Share this article on Facebook or Twitter.Email this article to friends or colleagues.We have a huge bird bottleneck - it’s a superhighway.” “Politically, it’s a disaster, but for bird migration, it’s heaven. Yossi Leshem, director of Israel’s International Center for the Study of Bird Migration (ICSBM), tells ISRAEL21c. “Israel sits on the junction of three continents,” Prof. With more than one billion feathered friends flying over Israel during spring and autumn, and an amazing variety of resident bird species, the country is one of the world’s best places for bird-watching all year long. 'But a couple of more informed birders were telling us it was anting,' said Austin.Birding in Israel is serious business. Many commented they had never seen such behaviour while others were concerned the bird was being attacked.

It wasn't until Austin got home and enlarged the images on a monitor that he noticed the crow had ants crawling all over its body. He posted the image to the Facebook group and asked people to weigh in on what they thought it might be. His photographic instincts kicked in, and he crouched down to capture a close-up - a chance encounter one bird expert says is quite rare. 'It was odd but exciting behaviour.'Īustin was in Victoria's Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary that day, and when a murder of crows landed close to him, he noticed what appeared to be a bird in distress. 'I'd never seen anything like this,' said Austin. The image also captured the imagination of hundreds of devotees of a Facebook group called Picture Perfect Vancouver Island after the Metchosin, B.C., photographer posted it on Monday. Photographer Tony Austin recently captured a peculiar image of a crow with its wings covered in dozens of tiny black ants in the throes of what appeared to be a behaviour he described as a 'very odd and violent dirt bath.'

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