Bulgaria Wildlife and Birdwatching Tours
Pandion Wild Tours Ltd is the leading Bulgarian company in the field of birdwatching, wildlife and nature tourism. We are based in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia and already more than 35 years on the market as we started our activities in the early 1990s, under the name Pandion-D.
We are specialized in the field of wildlife, nature and historical tourism. We offer a great diversity of wildlife and nature holidays & tours in one of Europe’s richest region in terms of biodiversity: Bulgaria.
Bulgaria, though relatively small, boasts the greatest biodiversity in Europe. Joining our tours you will discover one of the few countries in Europe with very well preserved nature and wildlife and get familiar with our country unique archaeological finds, Christian Orthodox cloisters, folklore and traditions. Bulgaria is also considered as one of the ancient European countries as most contemporary historians date the establishment of the First Bulgarian state at 165 AD.
All our guides are professional with long-year experience in their fields and wide knowledge about wildlife, history & culture of our wonderful country.
We cater to tourists with diverse interests: birders, botanists, and those interested in butterflies, dragonflies, spiders, reptiles and amphibians, mammals, wildlife photography and nature in general. Also welcome are those interested in Bulgarian culture, ancient history and archaeology, and those who would like to experience Bulgarian national traditions and customs, including Bulgarian cuisine and wines, folklore, Orthodox cloisters, and rural tourism.
We believe the tours we offer could suit every taste and interest and create unforgettable lifetime memories.
Our Guides:
Dr Stoyan Beshkov
Dr Beshkov is a lepidopterist and head of the Invertebrates Department at the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia. He is a very experienced tour leader leading tours for Pandion since early 2000. Stoyan’s research work focuses on his home country of Bulgaria and the neighbouring countries of Greece, Turkey and Macedonia.
Assen Ignatov
Assens guiding experience is starting from 1993. He is experienced in birdwatching, butterfly and natural history tours. He has an MSc in Vertebrate Zoology & Anthropology, and also works as a zoologist at Sofia’s National Museum of Natural History. As well as leading tours that focus on birding and butterfly watching, Assen has contributed to many scientific papers, as well as illustrating a number of books that specialize in Bulgaria’s natural history.
Dr Yordan Kutsarov
is part of the Pandion Wild Tours team for more than 15 years. Dr Kutsarov is experienced ornithologist and one of the few dragonfly specialists in Bulgaria. He devoted most of his work on the overall management of wetland protected areas including environmental monitoring aspects, nature protection, natural resource use, and all administrative issues as he was a member of the Steering Committee of the GEF/World Bank Project: Wetlands Restoration and Pollution Reduction. He has numerous publications as:
- “Important Bird Areas in Bulgaria (IBA)” – articles for IBAs
- “Important Bird Areas in Europe: Priority Sites for Conservation”
- “Saving Europe’s Most Threatened Birds”
Lyubomir Profirov
Lyubomir graduated from Sofia University with a diploma for the Autumn migration of soaring birds in 1981. He is a founding member of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB). He is an author and co-author of numerous field guides, scientific papers, environmental impact assessments etc. Lyubomir is also an ecological consultant and part of many conservation projects. He is also a co-author of the field guide “Birds Of The Balkan Peninsula” and is leading birding tours for more than 30 years. We truly can say that he is one of the most prominent Bulgarian birdwatching guides.
Pandion Wild Tours Ltd is a licensed tour operator company with national license № PK-01-7122.
Bulgaria still remains as one of the less known, less developed and poorest countries in EU, but with one of the richest biodiversity on the continent. The intensive agriculture is not widely represented and thus Nature is still well preserved. Travelling across the country you can observe vast fields of uncultivated land covered with huge diversity of thousands of plants, surrounded by birds and other wildlife. Bulgaria is relatively new Wildlife destination, as not early than late 90s it becomes to gain popularity among the nature lovers, since then the interest is constantly growing together with the efforts for preserving country’s unique nature. Since the beginning of our activities we realized that Nature is our biggest advantage and we put our efforts to keep it untouched and put conservations efforts where needed.
During our tours we visit one of the less populated and isolated areas in the country where we accommodate our tourists in local guesthouses and small family hotels, using mostly local products. Owners of these places are involved and aware of our Nature activities and thus benefiting from them are getting involved in our Nature preserving & conservation efforts. This is the example with the vulture feeding place in Studen Kladenetz village, Eastern Rhodopes, where we can observe 3 of the 4 possible European species of vultures. The village is isolated and with no more than 100 people living there, but during the seasons is visited of more than 500-600 people. Locals are involved in feeding & protection actions. This is also the case with the local fishermen from Srebarna lake reserve – UNESCO world heritage site, which is the only place where the Dalmatian pelican is breeding in Bulgaria and where one can observe both species of pelicans in Europe – Dalmatian & White. The lake is visited by hundreds of tourists yearly and thus bringing benefits to the locals who put their efforts to renovate & protect the reserve from poachers. These are just two small examples. Our wildlife tours have their contribution to the local scientific communities. Most of the local guides are either members of the Bulgarian academy of science or work for the academy. One impressive example is the discovery of the dragonfly species Corduliochlora borisi in 2001. The species has been described for the world science from South Bulgaria by a former Pandion Wild Tours guide Dr.Milen Marinov. Least but not last, profits from our wildlife tours are used for conservation activities. We took part in one of the most successful conservation projects for the decade in Bulgaria, which was for reintroducing the Lesser Kestrel in the country. The 10 year project finished with the great result of 70 breeding pairs in the country. During the years there were many other conservation activities indirectly financed by the organized wildlife tours to Bulgaria – Placing of a bird houses for Semicollared flycatcher & woodpeckers in the Danube area of Sreburna lake reserve, recovery of a Bee-eaters colony in the area, organizing a feeding station for Golden jackals in the Danube area of North Eastern Bulgaria and more.
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