‘Early birds’ leave Central Anatolia

Flamingos that have arrived in Düden Lake in the Kulu district of the Central Anatolian province of Konya early this year due to warmer weather have migrated again due to a shift to colder weathers recently. The lake is currently home to only ducks and a few bird species.

"The flamingos that recently came to the Tuz Lake basin, especially the young flamingos born in this region, came as the weather got warmer. But the weather is cold and there is no food; so, they went back to the Mediterranean and Aegean basins overnight," Aksaray University Veterinary Faculty Dean Professor Mustafa Cemal Darılmaz said.

Düden Lake, also known as Kulu Lake among locals, is located five kilometers east of Kulu district and north of Tuz Lake nearby. It has an area of 860 square kilometers and has a feature of being closed and shallow.

The lake hosts approximately 42,000 birds of 200 species such as flamingoes, marbled teal, red-crested pochard, ferruginous ducks, whitetail, avocet, greater sand plover, Mediterranean gulls and gull-billed terns. The lake is fed by small streams around it, including Değirmenözü Stream. Nine small islands with bird breeding colonies in the lake are covered in grass in the spring and summer.

Flamingos came to the lake, known as flamingo paradise, early this year due to climate change when the air temperature rose to 20 degrees Celsius in February. But they migrated again after the temperature dropped to minus 18 degrees in recent days.

Stating that there are approximately 700,000 flamingos in the world, Darılmaz said that the Tuz Gölü basin, which also consists of Düden Lake, is one of the important breeding areas of flamingos.

Noting that approximately 22,000 pairs of flamingos come to the basin every year to...