Birdsong in Turkey’s agricultural lands by Listening Earth

After many weeks of exploring Turkey’s forested and more wilderness landscapes, it came as a pleasant surprise for us to discover how rich in birdlife her agricultural landscapes were.

This is not the case in Australia, where birds found in our rural landscapes are recent colonisers, hardy adaptable species such as Galahs, Cockatoos and Magpies.

But in a land which was part of the ancient fertile crescent, the diverse birdlife we’ve found in farmland should not really be surprising. Birds in Turkey have had many thousands of years to adapt from native grasslands to exploit the grains and fields that mankind has nurtured.

The place we have been recording is in a wide valley, cultivated for many millennia. Indeed the ruins of the ancient Hitite capital city of Hattuşa lie on a hillside at the head of the valley, overlooking the well-tilled fields.

At first we thought this would be a problematic recording location, with tractors and other vehicle traffic being heard over a wide area. However after a little exploration, we came across a ‘hidden valley’ tucked into the hills, with a stream flanked by old orchards and dense thornscrub. Here we found Lesser Grey Shrikes, Orioles, Cuckoos, Corn Buntings, Lesser Whitethroats and a whole colony of Nightingales.

In the surrounding fields and hillsides were abundant Calandra Larks and Black-headed Buntings. The slopes were cultivated wherever the gradient would allow and left wildflowered and rocky otherwise.

It was on one of these hillsides that we spent a morning recording. The stream, and the songs of Orioles that kept territories along its banks, can be heard faintly from the valley below. Overhead Calandra Larks gave their twittery calls during pre-dawn songflights, and Black-headed Buntings sung from rocky perches.

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