OSME’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2018

OSME’s Annual Report and Accounts were approved at our Annual General Meeting at the BTO in Thetford, England on the 29th June 2019. These are now available on our website along with previous annual reports, see here: https://osme.org/content/osme-annual-reports...

A radical change in the sequence of Non-passerine Orders and Families in the OSME Region (For example, sandgrouse move to 9th from the top of 58 from 17th from the bottom)

OSME Region List 5.1 The OSME Region List has recently been updated and is now available on our website: https://osme.org/ORL​ IOC World Bird List v9.2 presents the difficult resequencing of the Non-passerine Orders, and the resequencing of many...

Happy birthday BBRC from your friends in the Middle East

Happy birthday BBRC from your friends in the Middle East

Happy birthday BBRC from your friends in the Middle East Sixty years ago, in 1959, the British Birds Rarities Committee produced its first report in the journal, British Birds. Since then many countries around the world have set up committees to...

The OSME Summer meeting and 41st AGM

The OSME Summer Meeting and 41st AGM will be held at BTO Headquarters, Thetford, Norfolk on Saturday 29th June. Doors will open at 10.00am for members and non-members to meet old and new friends over coffee and...

We Invite You to Join the Sarımazı Raptor Count

Turkey is home to one of the largest breeding populations of Egyptian Vultures in the world! An estimated 2000 pairs are living in Turkey – that’s around 25% of the global Egyptian vulture population. But also the...

Bird Camp Lebanon 2019 5-8 April

After developing the Bird Camp concept at Besh Barmag in Azerbaijan during 2016-2017 we did one in Lebanon in October 2018. Bringing youth together from different countries to learn about bird and nature conservation, and in the process exchange...

The wintering population of Egyptian Vultures in Ethiopia

Guest Blog by Volen Arkumarev During the second half of January 2019 a team from BSPB, RSPB, BirdLife Africa, EWNHS, SCF, NCF and APLORI**(full details below) conducted a field survey to establish the number of wintering Egyptian Vultures in...

OSME Region List Update 4.4 (Available at https://osme.org/orl)

This update incorporates, inter alia, intriguing conclusions from several heavyweight papers on: The Common/Long-legged/Upland/Mountain Buzzard superspecies. Divergence between Middle Spotted Woodpecker populations between Asian Turkey and continental Europe. (I have illustrated my blog post with images of the...

I LOVE NATURE 7

Guest blog by Leyla Muslim Hi. My name is Leyla. I live in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku. Since 2010 I am a member and volunteer of Nature Friends (an NGO) in Azerbaijan. Our aim is to enlighten more...

Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus

Racing to help declining Vultures

Champions of the Flyway is in its fifth year and the next Flyway Bird Race will be taking place, one again, at the end of March in Israel. So far these races and their sponsorship have raised over...

OSME Chairman’s report on 2018, and the year ahead

The year 2018 was a hugely significant one for OSME as we celebrated our 50th anniversary. In 1968, The Ornithological Society of Turkey (OST) was launched, and in 1978 its geographical remit expanded and became the Ornithological...

Azerbaijan and the Besh Barmag project

Guest blog from Gunay Behramzade Hello my name is Gunay and I’m an ecologist. Since my childhood I have a great passion for nature, but my great interest in birds started during my university years when I met German...

The Arabic App of Birds of the Middle East

A key focus for OSME over the last year has been the production of a smartphone App version of the Arabic field guide to the birds of the Middle East. In April 2018 we were able to...

Fighting illegal bird killing

A guest blog by Lloyd Scott The Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) is a European bird protection NGO based in Bonn Germany. Each year, we bring together around 250 volunteers from across the globe to conduct strategic...