Uzbekistan's passion for birdwatching

Prizes have been awarded for the national competition that has revived the practice of observing and photographing the country's beauty through the flight of its birds. A total of 335 different species have been immortalised by enthusiasts. A view that embraces not only animals, but also the people who live near them and many aspects of local culture and traditions.

Tashkent (AsiaNews) - At the beginning of January, the awards ceremony was held for the best birdwatchers in Uzbekistan, in the “Great Year-2025” competition, which had sent many people to the mountains, lakes, desert areas and even city streets in search of birds of all breeds and particularly interesting appearances, worthy of being filmed and photographed.

The website Gazeta.uz collected the stories of the winners and their unusual observations, which describe the beauty of the country through the flight of birds.

The winner of the competition is not Uzbek, but the American birdwatching enthusiast Emilio Zapata, who managed to capture images of 287 different types of birds in one year. Joining him on the podium were two Uzbeks, Marina Almazova with 259 species and Erik Salimov with 224 species.

Together, the contestants photographed 335 different species of birds, just one less than the previous year, which had reached a record 336 species, but still one of the best results in the history of the annual contest.

According to Almazova, last year proved to be “rich and bright”, after travelling extensively without pause in search of new specimens throughout all regions of Uzbekistan, and she states that “birdwatching is not only about birds, but also about the people who live near them, the conversations and feelings we exchange, and you don't feel alone in pursuing your hobby”.

She particularly remembers encountering red-breasted geese flying in the same flock as white-fronted geese, as well as the Sudoče lake system, where Marina saw hundreds of flamingos. In her opinion, the most successful photographs are those of a short-eared owl and a grey-headed goldfinch, although her favourite bird ‘is the next one I go looking for’.

A special jury prize was awarded to the “newcomer of the year”, Margarita Davydova, who recently started this special activity, managing to spot 214 types of birds and reaching fourth place in the overall ranking.

She tells Gazeta that her love of birds has actually remained with her since childhood, when her grandfather used to feed turtledoves and sparrows near the window, and she would hear the tits and thrushes begin to sing in spring, making her want to run outside as quickly as possible.

She thought she had a strange attraction and that only ornithologists were interested in birds, until she discovered the community of birdwatchers, travelling with them around the country from Tashkent to Samarkand, Bukhara and Nukus, through mountains and rivers of all kinds.

The prize for “Best photograph of the scotocerca”, the “restless sparrow” with a dark tail, was won by Relisa Granovskaja, a special nomination established in honour of the website Birds.uz, of which the scotocerca is the mascot and symbol that appears on its logos.

Relisa says she “searched for this rare and extraordinary bird for a long time, and finally found it in the summer near Lake Aččikul, but I couldn't photograph it properly”, only to find it again in the Fergana Valley while searching for specimens of the red-breasted finch, another type of sparrow with a fiery red breast.

Another award went to “The most interesting city encounter”, awarded to Aleksandr Rajkov, who managed to photograph a yellow wagtail in Tashkent in winter, while this type of bird can only be seen in flight in spring and autumn.

Two birdwatchers, Suvon Rakhimov from Jizzakh and Islambek Arepbaev from Karakalpakstan, were awarded for the “most interesting encounter” in general. The former managed to find a slender-billed buzzard, an Indian eagle that had never been spotted in Uzbekistan before, the 481st bird species added to the Birds.uz list, while the latter photographed a red-breasted merganser in the Sudoche mountain lake system, a species that had only been seen in museums and ancient literature.

Birds thus revive traditions and culture, prompting people to look up at the sky to gaze into their own future.