Tundra swans proliferate in Evros
Different species of swans gather in the Evros River Delta, in northeast Greece. [Antonis Tsaknakis/Ornithologiki]
Winter visitors to the Evros Delta, in Greece’s northeast, on the border with Turkey, will notice an abundance of wildlife, including thousands of swans.
The most remarkable story concerns the tundra swan, known in Greek as the dwarf swan. Despite the moniker, this is still a large bird, with a wingspan of nearly 2 meters.
The number of these swans migrating to Greece from their summer nesting sites in Arctic Russia has exploded in recent years. From the 30 individuals spotted across the country in 2005, they reached about 11,000 last year, half of them in Evros.
However, the overall number of tundra swans elsewhere in Europe has halved since 2005.
