Birding Campania

Campania and its capital city, Naples, lie on a major migration route, and in spring the resident bird population is swollen by large numbers of many northbound species. In total, more than 360 bird species have been recorded here, making this region an excellent destination for the birder.

Campania’s Sorrento Peninsula and Amalfi Coast are famous worldwide for their beautiful scenery. A mountainous ridge rises to more than 4000 feet in Sorrento, creating a landscape of weathered limestone peaks and deep gorges. Here you can find the distinctive Italian sparrow, and the cheerful jingling songs of serins are heard everywhere. This is typical habitat, too, for Sardinian and subalpine warblers, tawny pipit, and blue rock thrush. The cliffs host alpine, pallid, and common swifts, while agricultural areas are home to bee-eaters, hoopoes, wheatears, and a nice variety of shrikes and warblers. Cory’s and yelkouan shearwaters are often seen from coastal viewpoints.

In the high-altitude grasslands and mountain cliffs of Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park, golden eagles and rock partridge—the eagle’s favorite prey—are common. This same habitat is shared by other predators such as the peregrine and rare lanner falcons, raven, and red-billed chough. Typical forest species found here are the black woodpecker, Eurasian nuthatch, and bullfinch; the sight of a European goshawk is always exciting. White-throated dippers occur on rivers with clean, oxygen-rich waters.