Who built the Egyptian pyramids and how? The Egyptian pyramids are the most ancient of man-made wonders. It is surprising that time, which mercilessly and completely destroyed all the wonders of the world, spared precisely the earliest and first built - the pyramids. The 20th century with its theoretical

Egyptian Gods AMON - His name means "Hidden" and indicates that he was once the god of the wind - invisible, but omnipresent in his manifestation. The blue coloring of his body and the high crown with plumage also symbolize the air element. He is most often depicted as

Main bird habitats

History travel is an old tradition in Egypt. People have been traveling to historical sites since ancient times. However, there is another very traditional type of travel in Egypt. For 150 years, people have visited Egypt to study birds, and today, with the expansion of the national park system, this type of tourism will become more popular. Today, there are many travel companies, such as Travel Egypt, offering special tours to study birds. Birds play an important role in Egyptian history, especially in ancient religion, where some of the earliest and most important gods, such as Horus, were believed to manifest themselves in the form of various birds. Even the appearance of early myths centered around certain birds, such as the Benu, which may have originally been sculpted as a yellow wagtail (Motacilla yellow) but was later depicted as a gray heron (Ardea cinera). The primeval goose known as Gengen-Wer (Great Honker) represents several gods in their creative aspects. Horus, of course, is represented as a hawk, and gods like Thoth could be represented as an Ibis. Ra, one of the most important gods throughout ancient history, was represented as a falcon's head, as were Nemtu, Montu, Sokar and Sopdu.

There was also the goddess Nekhbet, represented in the form of a vulture. Many of these birds were kept in the sacred herds of the ancient Egyptians, and some special birds presided over animal temples. Even the souls (ba) of the ancient Egyptians were depicted as birds. In addition, the ancient Egyptians were excellent natural historians; more than 76 species of birds can be seen on the walls of temples and tombs alone. Many of these images show hunting and were only symbolic. For example, scenes depicting the pharaoh with a net of wild birds spoke of the king taming hostile spirits. The number of habitats is particularly suitable for bird populations, including the lush Nile Valley and many others. There are approximately 150 resident breeding birds in Egypt. These resident birds of Egypt belong mainly to two geographical regions - the Palearctic and Ethiopian. Most singing and waterfowl live in the Nile Valley, Delta and some western oases.

However, most importantly, Egypt is a migratory corridor attracting over 280 different species of birds. Egypt occupies a unique geographical position as a bridge between the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa and consequently millions of birds pass through the country on their way from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Siberia and Central Asia to eastern and southern Africa every autumn, and on their way back every spring . The migration begins in the winter months, when from about mid-February, the first wave of storks and birds of prey can be seen. The summer migration begins in early August, when waterfowl migrate from Zaranik in North Sinai and White Storks begin their migration in the southern Gulf of Suez. There are a number of areas that are suitable for large bird encounters in Egypt. Some exotic places, such as Lake Burulus in the Nile Delta, require special permission to visit. Lake Burulus, located in the Nile Delta and surrounded by marshes, is an important winter area for wigeons, shovelers, duskys, buttes and whiskered terns.

The good news is that the more difficult the journey to this lake, the more enjoyable the visit will be. Lake Manzala, being reclaimed for agricultural land, still collects ducks, shovelers and plumes in the winter. Some coastal birds, such as spotted-tailed sparrowhawks, can also be found here.

The gray heron is a year-round resident and lives in the lagoons and marshes of the delta.

Eagle owl photographed in the Lake Nasser area

Lake Bardawil on the northern coast of Sinai has traditionally been one of Egypt's most famous regions for bird watching. Located near Al Arish, the lake is on a very important migratory route, especially for waterfowl. Visiting this area during the fall migration season can be very interesting. Herons and ducks (especially waders) can be found swarming here in the thousands, as can gerbils, sandpipers, dunlins and spotted-tailed sparrowhawks. Flamingos are relatively common on both lakes Bardavili and Malakha. Wadi Natrun, in ancient times, was a source of salt for the inhabitants of Egypt, but since the Christian period, it was built up with some of the most famous Christian monasteries in Egypt, which remain there to this day. There are a number of lakes and swamps with birds inhabiting them, located along the desert roads connecting Cairo with Alexandria.

Here you can find European Plovers along with a variety of other migrants and wintering waterfowl.
The farmland also attracts a variety of birds such as the Tugai nightingale and the green bee-eater. Cairo also offers many opportunities for bird watchers or simply bird lovers. Most visitors to Egypt and its capital head to the Giza Zoo, which offers a variety of birds to see in its parks or cages. Here, during the migratory seasons, you can see many songbirds such as sunbirds and little egrets nesting in the Nile Valley. The Senegal thickknee lives on the roofs of houses throughout the city and, in places not entirely suitable for tourists, such as sewage plants, and in places near the Gebel Asfar medicine factory near the International Airport, you can see waders and rare colored snipe, blond kingfishers and dun nightjars. Suez, at the southern end of the Suez Canal, has several historical monuments and amazing bird watching spots. In general, it is located in some of the most crowded areas of migratory birds of prey. In addition, the muddy banks of the Nile attract many water birds. Other occasional visitors include white-eyed gulls and Bengal terns.
South of Suez, in Ain Sokhna, where a tourist community is developing, predators can be seen migrating across the Galala plateau.

Rock pigeons and other birds of the pigeon family live in coastal gardens and bushes, but you can also see seabirds here, including those living near the Red Sea: white-eyed gulls and swifts. The Fayum was once known for good bird hunting, but not anymore. This large oasis includes Lake Karun - an excellent place for bird watching and is very important for the wintering of birds such as grebes, snails, coots and waders. Ras Mohammed, located in the southern Sinai Peninsula south of Sharm el-Sheikh, is one of Egypt's most famous oldest protected reserves, better known for its coral reefs than its birds. However, the birds of prey Osprey and Silver Hobby nest here, and white storks fly by by the thousands in the autumn season. Herons and waders are abundant here, and birds such as osprey, gulls and terns are abundant nearby Tiran Island.

Along the entire coast of the Red Sea there are islands inhabited by indigenous marine inhabitants such as white-eyed gulls and white-cheeked terns. Many of them are visible from the island. Luxor (Thebes in ancient times) is famous for its great temples and tombs around the world, but it is also a great place to observe the typical birds of the Nile Valley. Here you will see purple moorhen, thick-knobbed senegal, sunbirds and the rare colored snipe. Aswan, another tourist city, offers absolutely exceptional birding. A short felucca ride, often included in an Aswan tour, can include a visit to the Green Heron with its birds in addition to other migratory waterfowl such as the Nile Goose.

Black kites circle the west bank of the Nile and there are opportunities to see African long-eared vultures and Egyptian vultures. (read also the story The Bird is the Man of Aswan). Abu Simbel contains some of Egypt's ancient tombs built by Ramesses the Great (along with the small tomb of his Great Queen Nefertari). Here, along the entire shore of Lake Nasser, many species of African birds live, such as the rose-backed pelican, the yellow-billed African wagtail, the African skimmers, the pink-headed collared dove and the African wagtail. Gebel Elba is located in the extreme southeastern corner of Egypt and offers a unique landscape that differs from the rest of the country. It conveys the mood of the Sahara Desert with its birds: ostriches, Caurus eagles, pink-headed collared doves and pink shrikes. This area is difficult to reach, but with the construction of national protected parks, the Egyptian government wants to promote these national parks and provide more accessible routes. It should be noted that there are several individuals who play an important role in promoting the Egyptian poultry industry. Most of the information for this article was taken from the book
"Birds of Egypt" by Bruna Bertel and Sherif Baha El Din. Note that outside of Egypt, this book is difficult to find on store shelves, but you can find it through various online stores such as Amazon.com.

Read also:

Mr. Mohame Arabi: "Birdman" of Aswan

Sources:

Source: http://touregypt.net/ru/featurestories/birding.htm.

There are not many birds in Egypt, but there is always something to watch as you can sometimes spot a really large number of migratory birds in Egypt. Egypt is located at the intersection of three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa. Therefore, here you can find quite a lot of migratory birds that migrate from Europe in winter and from Africa in summer.
Bird watching in Egypt is one of the favorite activities among nature lovers. Egypt is located on the main migration routes of migratory birds. As a result, millions of birds pass through the country every year, especially during the autumn and spring months.
Among the various species of birds, you can also observe unique species, such as the white-eyed gull, the steppe harrier, the imperial eagle, the spotted eagle, the crake, the snipe, the jack, the African skimmer and many others. The most popular regions for birdwatchers in Egypt are located around Cairo, the Red Sea, Upper Egypt, Mount Sinai, Alexandria and the northern coast.

Source: http://turkeynow.ru/priroda-egipta/524-pticy-v-egipte.html.

• birds of Egypt photos with names

birds of Egypt photos with names

This article will be more interesting to those who like to watch incomparable birds, free in their easy flight.

For others it will look like a simple interesting article, well, or not very much if there is no particular interest in birds. It is moderately informative and more general than specific, since we see no point in going into specific details.

But the first thing that arises in the mind of every reader who comes across such an article is the question: “What kind of birds could there be in Egypt? It’s practically one continuous desert here!”

The question, let’s say, is reasonable, but there are plenty of birds in Egypt, and all because the Egyptian territory is located at the crossroads of three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa, whose natural resources have different facets, partly similar to each other. Consequently, the inhabitants of these places are full of diversity.

But in Egypt the situation is different. There is no rich diversity of birds here as such, but you can meet feathered representatives of three continents during seasonal migration, when migratory birds “fly to warmer climes” for the winter.

For ornithologists, Egypt in this regard is simply pure pleasure!

In winter, birds leave Europe, and in summer they say goodbye to Africa. During their migration, they find shelter in Egypt. A particularly large variety of beautiful feathered creatures can be found here in spring or autumn, when they set up temporary, excessively noisy nesting sites. Each bird wants to settle down better and take a comfortable place in the bird's communal space, which is why disputes often arise. Therefore, if you want to combine a holiday in Egypt with bird watching, then it is best to navigate not by the sky, in the hope of seeing birds floating in the air flow, but by their excessively loud hubbub. But this, of course, is an exaggerated joke.

And you won’t want to watch the birds of Egypt, because among the fairly common birds you can also find rare unique species that look very impressive.

Among such birds, the following representatives can be tracked in temporary nesting areas:

The habitat of this bird is limited to the territory of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. During the non-breeding period, the white-eyed gull can also be found in Turkey, the UAE, Oman and Iran. Very often, this relatively small bird can be observed far in the open sea, although the white-eyed gull spends most of its life in the coastal area, where it looks for food, feeding on sea fish, although it does not disdain to pick its beak in a garbage dump, or raising the future generation .

This graceful bird of prey is listed in the Red Book and has found its distribution throughout most of Russia. You can also meet it in Eurasia from Romania and Ukraine to Southern Siberia, to the east it is found in Altai, to the southwest it hunts in the territory of Transbaikalia and Xinjiang (Dzungaria) in China, to the north it can nest in the Baltic region, to the south it is found in Crimea, in Caucasus, Iran.

ABOUT! But this bird amazes with its grandeur, beauty and its “singing”. Since their singing resembles the yelping of a small dog. If you want to be barked, then meeting this eagle will be unforgettable. Most of these beauties live in Russia; their numbers are relatively small—there are no more than 1,200 pairs.

Spotted eagles can be seen in Egypt during their return summer migration to Africa, where they fly in pairs over the Nile Valley. It is here that they like to spend part of their time hunting small animals. It's a pleasure to watch them hunt! Most of these birds live in Belarus, Latvia and Poland.

This feathered gray baby is a master of camouflage. It is quite difficult to spot a corncrake and sneak up on it unnoticed. Most likely, this nimble little bird will reveal itself in a split second when it instantly flutters out of the thick grass or takes off through dense thickets. She runs faster than any fastest sprinter.

These birds, always prowling in search of small food, can be found in the lowlands of the Nile River, where the overflowing banks become like swamps and only at night, when they are most active, as they are nocturnal. During the day they are quite difficult to detect; they know how to hide well in swamp thickets and doze until dusk.

This bird lives in North Africa from Mauritania to the Nile in Egypt. The habitat also extends to Asia from the Sinai Peninsula, to western Pakistan and from the Caspian Sea to Mongolia.

These birds of Egypt settle in the lower reaches of the Nile and form small flocks. You can see them hunting at dusk, as they are predominantly nocturnal. The African skimmer can fly completely silently and catches fish on the fly, “cutting” the water with its beak, like a pelican. For this skill, they are known to many as the African cutwater.

In general, during the migration of birds in Egypt you can find a large number of them. But the most convenient places for observation, where you can find a wide variety of birds, are the regions near Cairo, the coastal zone of the Red Sea, the Sinai Mountains, the regions of Upper Egypt, the smallest part of the birds live in Alexandria and the largest part of the birds that feed on marine life occupy the region of the northern coast.

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Latin name- Bubulcus ibis
English name- Cattle egret, buff-backed heron
Bird class-Aves
Squad- storks (Ciconiiformes)
Family- herons (Ardeidae)
Genus- Egyptian herons (Bubulcus)

There are 2 subspecies of the Egyptian heron, differing in details of plumage color and size: B.i.ibis and B.i. coromandus. The subspecies B.i.ibis, described by C. Linnaeus in 1758 from specimens brought from Egypt (hence the Russian name of the bird), lives in the western part of its range - in Europe, Western Asia and Africa, and, starting from the mid-twentieth century, in American continent. The subspecies B.i.coromandus inhabits the eastern part of its range - India, Indochina, and the Pacific Islands (from Japan to Australia). The name Bubulcus was given to this heron later (1855) and reflects the peculiarities of its behavior - accompanying herds of ungulates, both wild and domestic. The Latin word "bubulcus" translates as "boete" or "shepherd".

Conservation status

Species and man

Although the Egyptian heron is favored by farmers because it helps control agricultural pest populations, local residents often destroy its bustling colonies in populated areas. In a number of regions, changes in the hydrological regime after the construction of hydroelectric stations and irrigation systems also lead to negative consequences for Egyptian herons (for example, a sharp decrease in the level of Lake Sevan in Armenia by almost 20 m led to the drying out of the neighboring lake and the disappearance of many bird species, including and Egyptian herons). The use of pesticides in fields also leads to the death of the Egyptian heron. The Egyptian heron is often used by humans for environmental biocontrol. Thus, studies in the Indian state of Kerala, where these birds often feed on garbage heaps, showed that each heron daily eats 100-150 g of carrion and housefly larvae, thereby significantly reducing their numbers. Distribution and habitats. The Egyptian heron is known for its rapid range expansion. During the twentieth century, it settled on almost all continents (except Antarctica). The origin of the species is associated with the regions of central Africa. In Europe, it initially nested only on the Iberian Peninsula and in the Volga delta; in Asia, its range extended from Palestine to Indochina; in addition, it inhabits all the large islands of the Indian and Pacific oceans. On the territory of the former Soviet Union, the Egyptian heron nests in the southern regions of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan. In the countries of the New World, the Egyptian heron began to appear at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. At first these were isolated flights, but gradually the herons began to nest. The Egyptian heron first appeared in the United States in 1953, and in the 1970s the population in the eastern part of the country alone numbered more than 400 thousand individuals. Egyptian herons began to populate Australia around 1948, and currently they are found in all coastal areas of Australia, and sometimes fly far inland. In Europe, Egyptian herons began to spread in the mid-twentieth century; they now regularly nest not only in Spain (the original breeding site), but also in France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands. Egyptian herons are less associated with bodies of water than other heron species. However, when choosing habitats, they prefer wetter biotopes close to freshwater bodies. The main natural biotopes of the Egyptian heron are meadows, savannas and other open spaces with herbaceous vegetation and freshwater bodies of water. These herons often stay near grazing animals, thus obtaining food for themselves. Human changes in natural landscapes (cutting down forests and replacing them with pastures, creating irrigation systems, etc.) led to the fact that Egyptian herons successfully mastered and populated these secondary landscapes. They only avoid continuous forests, high mountains, sea coasts and deserts.

Appearance

Lifestyle

Distribution and habitats

Egyptian herons nest in colonies, often together with other species of herons, spoonbills, ibis and cormorants. The number of Egyptian heron nests in these colonies ranges from several tens to several thousand. Nests are most often made on deciduous trees, less often in reeds and bamboo thickets. The breeding season varies depending on the nesting site. In the tropics, herons nest year-round, with the peak of nesting activity falling during the wettest period. In temperate latitudes (Europe, North Africa), egg laying occurs from April to July, in North America - from April to May. In eastern Australia, most females incubate from October to March, and in the north of the continent there are 2 peaks of nesting activity - in November and January. The male chooses the place to build the nest - usually it is a convenient fork in a tree at a height of 8-10 m from the ground. There he lays the foundation of a nest from fairly large branches and begins to actively guard it. At the same time, the male behaves very noisily and aggressively, trying to attract females and drive away other males. All this is accompanied by special ritual movements. After the pair has formed, the birds complete the nest, with the male collecting dry twigs and the female laying them down. Construction lasts 4-5 days, the nest is loose, and by the end of incubation, eggs are visible from below through the branches. The diameter of the nest is 20-45 cm, height 7-12 cm. The clutch size varies in different regions, but on average it is 2-5 eggs. The eggs are regular ovoid in shape with well-defined blunt and sharp ends, which immediately distinguishes them from the eggs of other herons. The eggs have a rough, white shell with a bluish or greenish tint. Both birds of the pair incubate the clutch for 21-26 days, starting with the first egg. The hatched chicks are covered with down, but are completely helpless. The ability to independently maintain body temperature appears only on days 9-12 of life. At the same time, they are very loud and aggressive, and can distinguish their parents from other birds within 3 days after hatching. At the age of 20 days, the chicks leave the nest and move nearby along branches and vines, clinging to them with their paws and beak. At the age of about 30 days, young Egyptian herons begin to fly, but for about 2 more weeks they stay with their parents, after which the brood finally disintegrates. The mortality rate of Egyptian heron chicks is relatively low because the parents actively protect the nest and offspring.

Lifespan

Life at the Moscow Zoo