Bence Kókay - Tour Guide

Bence has finished his studies at the Kecskemét Horticulture College in 2008. He has worked for Hungarian Birdlife for 4 years, now he works for the Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Hungarian Academy of Science. He has started birdwatching in 1995.

His favourite area is Kiskunság National Park, where he has observed some megas, like White-tailed Plovers, Baird’s Sandpiper, Eleonora’s Falcon, Buff-breasted Sandpiper. His other findings include two Great Northern Divers, Citrine Wagtail, Pallas’s Gull, Iceland Gull. Bence’s favourite birdgroups are the wildfowls, gulls and shorebirds.
His Hungarian Life List include 339 species, interesting are the next: Great Northern Diver, Dalmatian Pelican, Blue-winged Teal, American Wigeon, Egyptian Vulture, Greater Spotted Eagle, Steppe Eagle, Amur Falcon, Black-winged Pratincole, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Baird’s Sandpiper, American Golden Plover, Sociable Plover, Upland Sandpiper, Terek Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Wilson’s Phalarope, Stilt Sandpiper, Slender-billed Gull, Pygmy Owl, Tengmalm’s Owl, Oriental Turtle Dove, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Red-rumped Swallow, Hume’s Leaf Warbler, Scarlet Rosefinch, Snow Finch, Cirl Bunting, Black-headed Bunting, Pine Bunting.

Bence is also member of the Hungarian Nomenclator Committee and a respected birder in the community.

During his trips Bence has visited Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Italy, Slovenia, Tunisia, Egypt, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

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László Albert - Tour Guide

László has been watching bird since 1988, when he was 14, but interested in the nature from his first step. He was graduated from the University of West-Hungary as a Game manager, and from Eötvös Lóránd University as a Zoologist. He is working for the Budapest Zoo, as a keeper, on a field of South-American animals. He is a member of Birdlife Hungary, "B" member of IUCN, and co-founder a local society, called The Birding Circle of the Outskirts of Budapest. Among this society he has been surveying, and monitoring a wide range of birds of Danube since 1994, researching Mute Swan since 1997, presenting nature conservation activity for children on the field and schools as well.

His favourite areas: Danube, mainly Danube-bend, Kiskunság National Park, Hortobágy National Park, Bükk Hills, Buda Hills, Zemplén Hills.

He has observed 320 species in Hungary so far, rarities from his Hungarian list includes: Tundra Swan, Lesser White-fronted Goose, Red-breasted Goose, White-headed Duck, Great Northen Diver, White Pelican, Dalmatian Pelican, Cattle Egret, Sabine’s Gull, Iceland Gull, Great Black-headed Gull, Great Skua, Arctic Tern, Saker, Amur Falcon, Egyiptian Vulture, Steppe Eagle, Imperial Eagle, Great Spotted Eagle, Ural Owl, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Greater Sand Plover, White-rumped Sandpiper, Slender-billed Curlew, Terek Sandpiper, Sociable Plover, White-tailed Plover, Baird's Sandpiper, American Golden Plover, Red-rumped Swallow, Alpine Swift, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Paddyfield Warbler, Aquatic Warbler, ect.

He loves all group of birds, especially the waders, gulls, that's why he has participated in some international project, for instance: Griffor Vulture Conservation Project in Cres, Croatia, Messina, Raptor Survey in Sicily, Italy.

Visited countries: The Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Finland, Norway, Poland, Estonia, Slovakia, Romania, Italy (Sicily), Greece, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Morocco, Tunisia.

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Norbert Riezing - Tour Guide

Norbert is graduated from the University of West-Hungary as a Forest Engineer. He got a Ph.D in botany with the study of forest vegetation. His field of research is vegetation-dynamics of the special Hungarian forest-steppe, and the interrelations of present vegetation and former land use. Beside Botany and Ornithology he is also interested in Herpetology, Ichtyology and Mammalogy discovering rare plant species and new locations of Snake-eyed Skink and Pygmy Field Mouse.

Norbert has been birding since 1989 and has been an activist for the BirdLife Hungary, organising plenty of excursions and other programs for birders.

During his field birding he has found many rarities, such as: Ruddy Shelduck, Spotted Eagle, Booted Eagle, Terek Sandpiper, Great Snipe, Grey Phalarope, Arctic Tern, Citrine Wagtail, Bonelli's Warbler, Scarlet Rosefinch, Cirl Bunting, Ortolan Bunting, Black-winged Pratincole.

During his birding trips he visited many countries in Europe, and Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, India, Canada, Venezuela and South Africa.

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Gábor Horváth - Tour Guide

Gábor has finished his studies at the University of West-Hungary as a Bachelor of wildlife management. He started birdwatching in 1989, since then he has birdwatching in every week. He has worked for Hungarian Birdlife and worked as a professional birwatcher in Biharugra Fishponds in Eastern Hungary for three years.

Gabor is a licensed birdringer and He often organizes presentations and tours about birds and wildlife for children. He is a co-founder the local society The Birding Circle of the Outskirts of Budapest, and he is one of the planners and administrators of www.birding.hu the Hungarian birdwatchers’ site.

Gábor is very much interested in Hungarian rarities, he has observed more than 350 species in Hungary which is quite big number in Middle-Europe. He has twitched some very good rarities, as Amur Falcon, Sociable Lapwing,  Slender-billed Curlew, Spur-winged Lapwing but also found some Hungarian rarities like White-headed Duck, Great Northern Loon, Griffon Vulture, Cinereous Vulture, Steppe Eagle, Baird's Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper, etc.

During his birding trips he has visited almost all European countries; his favourite land in Europe is Northern Scandinavia and Transylvania. He also visited Egypt, Morocco (to see the last wintering Slender-billed Curlew), Turkey, Syria and Israel. He spent several months in India, Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia with birdwatching.

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Antal Bagdi - Tour Guide

Antal has been watching birds for over 26 years. He is the Coordinator of the Hungarian Bee-eater protection program at BirdLife Hungary , also leading the Sandmartin protection in his county. He has a particular interest in bird protection especially on these species. Antal has spent some years doing fieldwork on the islands of the Danube which is one of his favourite birding areas.

His list includes Whooper Swan, Red-breasted Goose, Ruddy Schelduck, Imperial Eagle, Jack Snipe, Pectoral Sandpiper, Sabine's Gull, Terek Sandpiper, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Great Bustard, Bewick's Swan, Lesser White-fronted Goose, Great Northen Diver, Scarlet Rosefinch in Hungary.

He has travelled widely in Europe, USA and China.

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László Kozma - Tour Guide

László has been an active birder for over 20 years and since 1995 he has spent most of his free time on raptor protection and population survey. He has a wide knowledge of the ethology of Imperial Eagle, White-tailed Eagle and Saker. His main working area is NW Hungary, helping a lot to the experts of the local Fertő-Hanság National Park.

Beside his great enthusiasm to the raptors, he regularly participates in the monitoring works of the local migrating/wintering Great Bustard population, as well as in the wetland reconstructions in the Hanság area.

During the years he has seen several Hungarian rarities, like Red-breasted Goose, Ruddy Shelduck, Greater Spotted Eagle, Egyptian Vulture.

On his birding trips he has visited Austria, Romania, Greece, Turkey, Spain, Gibraltar and Syria.

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Dániel Hegedűs - Tour Guide

Dániel studied environmental engineering at Szent István University, at the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. He has worked for the Hungarian Birdringing Center for a year. He is a licensed birdringer. He often organizes presentations about birds for children. He took part in a ringing program in Northeastern-Turkey in 2008. He participates in the ‘Waterbirds on the Danube monitoring program’.

He started birdwatching in 2000. Since then he has visited every week his favourite site, the Kiskunság National Park and has observed more than 260 species in the area.

His Hungarian list includes 333 species, most interesting species are: Red-breasted Goose, American Wigeon, Egyptian Vulture, Greater Spotted Eagle, Steppe Eagle, Amur Falcon, Great Bustard, Black-winged Pratincole, American Golden Plover, Sociable Lapwing, Upland Sandpiper, Terek Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Wilson’s Phalarope, Stilt Sandpiper, Heuglin’s Gull, Slender-billed Gull, Iceland Gull, Ural Owl, Eagle Owl, Scarlet Rosefinch, etc.

During his trips Dániel has visited Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Egypt, Turkey, Finland, Norway, Spain and Maine (USA).

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Zoltán Oláh - Tour Guide

Zoltán is graduated as an electrical engineer at the Technical University of Budapest in 2012. Since then he has been working as a service engineer. 

He started birdwatching in 2008. He prefers bird- and nature photography, but he also enjoys finding and twitching rarities. His favourite findings: White-tailed Lapwing, Levant Sparrowhawk, Long-tailed Skua, Arctic Skua, Dalmatian Pelican and Pallid Harrier. Beside these his most memorable twitches: Caspian Plover, Audoin's Gull, Black-winged Kite, Sociable Plover, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowicher, Lesser Yellowlegs, Semi-palmated Sandpiper, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper, Ring-necked Duck, White-headed Duck, Booted Eagle, Greater Spotted Eagle, Glaucous Gull, Dusky Warbler. 

During his birdwatching trips he regularly visits the nearby countries, like Croatia, Romania, Slovakia and Austria. He also visited Greece, Netherlands, USA (Vermont and Michigan), France (Corsica), United Kingdom, Switzerland, Albania, Italy. 

Zoltán prefers stalking bird photography, but also uses mobile hides. He uses Canon equipment. As an engineer he is also interested in the technical side of the photography, therefore he follows the latest technologies in photography. 

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