Record Number of White-headed Ducks in Burgas Lake

A new record number of the globally endangered Ferruginous Duck has been recorded in Lake Burgas, the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) announced. The results of the regular monitoring, carried out by Vladimir Mladenov, show the presence of 4603 birds. The organization emphasizes the significance of these data, which highlight the vital role of the lake for this rare species.

After a record population of 4163 individuals was recorded in the same area last year, the current observation in Lake Burgas potentially covers between 29 and 61 percent of the entire wintering European population of the Ferruginous Duck. The BSPB specifies that this globally endangered species has a sharply declining population, with between 5300 and 8700 adult individuals remaining in the world. The wintering population in Europe is estimated at between 7500 and 15,900 individuals.

Lake Burgas is the main wintering ground for the Ferruginous Duck in Bulgaria and one of the most important in Europe. The observation confirms its critical significance for the conservation of this rare species. "In the last decade, the Ferruginous Ducks in Burgas had reached critically low numbers of only a few hundred wintering individuals. This was a trend that was observed everywhere in the species' range," the society points out.

The monitoring carried out in Lake Burgas is particularly important, given the challenges to the conservation of this species. According to data cited by BTA, at the end of September, the BSPB reported that nearly 38% of the nesting bird species in Bulgaria have stable populations, and 22% are showing an increase. At the beginning of 2025, ornithologist Dr. Petar Yankov told BTA that during the 49th Midwinter Count in the area of the Burgas lakes, several other endangered bird species globally, such as the Horned Grebe and two Red-crested Pochards, included in the world's Red Book, were observed, which are among the least numerous species on the planet, threatened with extinction altogether.