Hortobagy National Park - Wild Wild Horses

One of the unexpected highlights of the trip to Hortobagy was a chance to view wild horses in a semi-natural setting. During my four day visit to the park, I spent five hours with park ranger and guide, Tamás Zalai. One of the many normally restricted places he took me was the wild horse reserve in the Pentezug puszta section of the park.

The Pentezug area is a 4000 hectare (aprox. 1000 acres) grassland that is surrounded by an electric fence to prevent the wild horses and a close relative of the now extinct aurochs, the Heck cattle (Bos primigenius), from wandering off into areas were their survival would be threatened. The fence is designed to allow native species of wildlife to move back and forth while preventing the movement of the larger introduced grazers.

The wild horses living in the reserve are Przewalski's (Equus ferus przewalskii). The 200 horses in the park are all descended from an original group of 17 horses donated from several zoos across Europe. The majority came from the Cologne Zoo in Germany. The biologists working with the horses are part of a team that has reintroduced Prezwalski's to their native habitat in the steppes of central Asia. The work they do with the horses in the Hortobagy's reserve provides important information regarding the ecology, behavior, and disease biology of transplanted horses, that will facilitate the reintroductions they are doing in Asia.

Like the few remaining non-reintroduced herds of Przewalski's, the horses in the Hortobagy have the same social system. Individuals are clustered into bands consisting of a band stallion, several breeding females, and their young. Once males are three years old they leave the band and congregate in herds with other bachelor males. With any luck, after several years of living as bachelors they will establish their own band and defend the females from other established band stallions and bachelor males trying to establish their own families.

In addition to facilitating work on wild introductions, the park managers' other goal for the management of the Przewalski's is to help establish and maintain the ecological conditions present in the park when wild and domesticated grazers were common on the Hungarian steppe. The Hortobagy used to have a different species of wild horse, the Tarpan (Equus ferus ferus), that was part of the grazing system that maintained the open landscape. I will write more about the importance of grazers in the Hungarian steppe's ecology in a subsequent post.

Hortobagy National Park - An introduction

The trip I made along the M3 highway from Budapest to Füzesabony, and then along Rt.33 is one of agricultural vistas. It's pretty enough, but things really changed once I reached the town of Egyek. Suddenly the vistas really opened up and everywhere there were birds. With the windows down, I was greeted by the songs of Reed Warblers, Great Reed Warblers, and Sedge Warblers that sang from the reed beds along the edges of the road.

Great Reed Warbler

 In addition to the vast grassland vistas, my view was filled with Great Egrets, Marsh Harriers, Buzzards, flocks of Lapwings, Black Terns, and Rooks.

Great White Egret

The minute you cross into the park you are immediately aware that this is one of Europe's great bird sanctuaries.

The park is about a two hour drive east of Budapest and is just west of Debrecen.

Hortobagy National Park (Hortobágyi Nemzeti Park) was established as Hungary's first national park in 1973.  The park was named a World Heritage Site in 1999, a UNESCO designation given to areas were human and natural systems coexist in a relatively stable system.  The parks 820 square kilometers (316 square miles) is a mosaic of loess and alkaline grasslands, wetlands, fishponds, woodlots, and floodplain forests.

The grassland and wetland systems of the park are maintained by a unique hydrological regime of flooding, and grazing by domestic animals today and by wild grazers like the Tarpan and the Aurochs before they went extinct.  For many years the grazing and flooding regime of the park has been disrupted by human activities.  Since these aspects of the park are so important to its ecological character, I'll write separate posts on them.

The Hortobagy is considered one of Europe's top ten areas for bird watching.  Over 600 species have been reported in the park, of which about half have been reported to breed in the park.  In addition to its large size and mix of habitats, it is one of the flyway stopover sites for birds migrating between northern Europe and Africa.

Sheep barn with thatched roof.

Water well.

Within the parks boundaries and its edges you can can see many human structures that characterize the relationship between the grasslands of the steppe and humans.

Hungarian Birds

I am near the halfway point in my time in Hungary. It's been an incredible trip so far and I have lots of new knowledge to share. I am going to use this week to catch-up on several posts I have in progress. I will start by listing the birds I've seen or heard so far and the places I saw them. There are over 300 breeding birds in Hungary so I won't, just yet, provide a comprehensive bilingual vocab list.

I have spent some time searching for birds in four locations: 1) Budapest, 2) Sziget Monostor, 3) Hortobagy National Park, and a fairly undisturbed section of the 4) Tisza River below Tokaj.

The highest numbers of species are from the Hortobagy National Park and its immediate surroundings. There are a few reasons for this. The park is fairly large and contains many types of grassland, woodland, and wetland habitats. It's in the middle of the migratory flyway between northern Europe and Africa, and some of the birds noted are holdovers from the spring migration. Another reason for the high counts here is that I spent three days in the park, compared to only two days on the Tisza and one at Sziget Monostor. One of the days in the park, I spent five hours with a guide, Tamás Zalai, a park ranger and outstanding birder. My bird count nearly doubled on that day. If you visit the park, I highly recommend you hire a guide. You can do that by booking in advance (Park Website) or during your visit at the visitors center in the town of Hortobagy.

The Hortobagy National Park is considered one of Europe's top ten places to see birds and one of the top two in Hungary. I'll have a lot more to say about the Hortobagy in subsequent posts.

Locations: Budapest - BU; Sziget Monostor - SM; Hortobagy - HO; Tisza River - TR.

Common Name
Great-crested Grebe (HO)
Cormorant (HO)
Pygmy Cormorant (HO)
Dalmatian Pelican (HO)
Bittern (HO)
Night Heron (HO, TR)
Grey Heron (HO, SM, TR)
Purple Heron (HO)
Little Egret (HO)
Great White Egret (HO, SM, TR)
Squacco Heron (HO)
Spoonbill (HO)
White Stork (HO, SM, TR)
Black Stork (TR)
Greylag Goose (HO)
Mallard (HO, SM)
Teal (HO)
Garganey (HO)
Ferruginous Duck (HO)
Pochard (HO)
Shelduck (HO)
Marsh Harrier (HO)
Rough-legged Buzzard (HO)
Buzzard (HO, SM, TR)
Kestrel (HO)
Hobby (TR)
Red-footed Falcon (TR)
Pheasant (HO, TR, SM)
Corncrake (HO, TR)
Water Rail (HO)
Coot (HO)
Great Bustard (HO)
Little Ringed Plover (TR)
Lapwing (HO)
Avocet (HO)
Black-winged Stilt (HO)
Oystercatcher (TR)
Greenshank (HO)
Black-headed Gull (HO, TR)
Whiskered Tern (HO)
Black Tern (HO)
White-winged Black Tern (HO)
Wood Pigeon (HO)
Rock Dove (BU, HO, TR, SM)
Collared Dove (HO)
Long-eared Owl (HO)
Hoopoe (HO)
Roller (HO)
Bee-eater (HO)
Kingfisher (TR)
Cuckoo (BU, HO, TR, SM)
Black Woodpecker (TR)
Green Woodpecker (HO)
Skylark (HO)
Crested Lark (HO)
Swift (BU)
Swallow (BU, HO, SM, TR)
Sand Martin (TR)
Grey Wagtail (HO)
Yellow Wagtail (HO)
Stonechat (HO)
Nightingale (HO)
Blackbird (BU, HO, SM, TR)
Song Thrush (TR)
Reed Warbler (HO, TR)
Great-Reed Warbler (HO)
River Warbler (HO, TR)
Sedge Warbler (HO)
Blackcap (HO, TR)
Chiffchaff (SM)
Red-backed Shrike (HO, SM, TR)
Great Grey Shrike (HO)
Magpie (BU, HO, SM, TR)
Starling (BU, HO, SM, TR)
Golden Oriole (HO, TR)
Hooded Crow (BU, HO, TR, SM)
Rook (HO)
Jackdaw (HO)
Chaffinch (SM)
Greenfinch (HO, SM)
Goldfinch (HO, SM, TR)
House Sparrow (BU, HO, SM, TR)
Tree Sparrow (HO, TR, SM)
Corn Bunting (HO)

Hungarian Name
Búbos vöcsök
Kárókatona
Kis kárókatona
Borzas gödény
Bölömbika
Bakcsó
Szürke gém
Vörös gém
Kis kócsag
Nagy kócsag
Üstökösgém
Kanalasgém
Fehér gólya
Fekete gólya
Nyári lúd
Tőkés réce
Csörgő réce
Böjti réce
Cigányréce
Barátréce
Bütykös ásólúd
Barna rétihéja
Pusztai ölyv
Egerészölyv
Vörös vércse
Kabasólyom
Kék vércse
Fácán
Haris
Guvat
Szárcsa
Túzok
Kis lile
Bíbic
Gulipán
Gólyatöcs
Csigaforgató
Szürke cankó
Dankasirály
Fattyúszerkõ
Kormos szerkõ
Fehérszárnyú szerkõ
Örvös galamb
Parlagi galamb
Balkáni gerle
Erdei fülesbagoly
Búbosbanka
Szalakóta
Gyurgyalag
Jégmadár
Kakukk
Fekete harkály
Zöld küllõ
Mezei pacsirta
Búbospacsirta
Sarlósfecske
Füsti fecske
Partifecske
Hegyi billegetõ
Sárga billegetõ
Cigánycsuk
Fülemüle
Fekete rigó
Énekes rigó
Cserregõ nádiposzáta
Nádirigó
Berki tücsökmadár
Foltos nádiposzáta
Barátposzáta
Csilpcsalpfüzike
Tövisszúró gébics
Nagy õrgébics
Szarka
Seregély
Sárgarigó
Dolmányos varjú
Vetési varjú
Csóka
Erdei pinty
Zöldike
Tengelic
Házi veréb
Mezei veréb
Sordély