More Than a Million Birds of Prey Over Batumi: A Migration Spectacle Threatened by Poaching
Every autumn, more than a million birds of prey fly through the 'Batumi bottleneck' on Georgia's Black Sea coast, where the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mountains form a migration corridor. According to a 2013 study, around 9,000 birds die each year from illegal hunting. Volunteers of Batumi Raptor Count have been counting since 2008, while ecotourism gives local residents an economic incentive to protect the birds.
Madina Usmonova