Birds in Georgia

Eurasian goshawk

Accipiter gentilis

A large woodland hawk with short broad wings, a rounded tail and a white eyebrow. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident, a passage migrant and a winter visitor on the 2024 national bird checklist.

Eurasian sparrowhawk

Accipiter nisus

A small woodland hawk with short wings and a long tail. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident and passage migrant on the 2024 national bird checklist.

Tengmalm's owl

Aegolius funereus

A small forest owl with yellow eyes, a round facial disc and no ear tufts. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident and breeder on the 2024 national bird checklist.

Cinereous vulture

Aegypius monachus

A very large, almost uniformly dark scavenging raptor. Confirmed in Georgia as a breeding resident and a migrant on the 2024 national bird checklist. Nesting is documented in the south-east dry zone.

Kakheti

Mallard

Anas platyrhynchos

A dabbling duck of wetlands and open water. Confirmed in Georgia on the 2024 national bird checklist as a year-round resident, a passage migrant, and a winter visitor. Breeding is concentrated on highland lakes; numbers rise in autumn and winter.

Samegrelo — Zemo Svaneti · Guria · Samtskhe — Javakheti

Common swift

Apus apus

A dark aerial bird with long scythe-shaped wings and a short forked tail. Confirmed in Georgia as a breeding migrant on the 2024 national bird checklist; it does not stay the winter.

Golden eagle

Aquila chrysaetos

A large dark-brown eagle with a golden nape. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident and breeder on the 2024 national bird checklist.

Little owl

Athene noctua

A small compact owl with yellow eyes and no ear tufts. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident and breeder on the 2024 national bird checklist.

Eurasian eagle-owl

Bubo bubo

Eurasia’s largest owl, with long ear tufts and orange eyes. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident and breeder on the 2024 national bird checklist.

Common buzzard

Buteo buteo

The common buzzard is a medium-sized, broad-winged raptor with a fairly short tail. Plumage is highly variable: some birds are almost entirely dark brown, while others are much paler. In Georgia it is a year-round resident, though additional birds occur during migration and winter. It is most often confused with European honey-buzzard, long-legged buzzard, or rough-legged buzzard. It is not an eagle.

White stork

Ciconia ciconia

A large white bird with black flight feathers and a red bill and legs. Confirmed in Georgia as a breeding migrant on the 2024 national bird checklist; nesting is limited to southern highland settlements.

Samtskhe — Javakheti · Kvemo Kartli

Common woodpigeon

Columba palumbus

A large grey pigeon with a white neck patch and a broad white wing bar in flight. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident, a passage migrant, and a winter visitor on the 2024 national bird checklist.

Northern raven

Corvus corax

A very large all-black crow with a heavy bill and a wedge-shaped tail. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round breeding resident on the 2024 national bird checklist; the checklist lists the nominate subspecies Corvus corax corax.

Common quail

Coturnix coturnix

A small, cryptic grassland gamebird heard more often than seen. Confirmed in Georgia on the 2024 national bird checklist as a breeding bird, a passage migrant, and a winter visitor.

Kakheti

Common cuckoo

Cuculus canorus

A grey, hawk-like bird with a two-note call. Confirmed in Georgia as a breeding migrant on the 2024 national bird checklist; it does not stay the winter.

Great spotted woodpecker

Dendrocopos major

A pied black, white and red woodpecker with large white shoulder patches. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident and breeder on the 2024 national bird checklist.

Yellowhammer

Emberiza citrinella

A seed-eating bunting with a chestnut rump. Confirmed in Georgia as a winter visitor; breeding in Georgia is not accepted on the 2024 national bird checklist.

European robin

Erithacus rubecula

A small woodland songbird with an orange face and breast. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident and breeder on the 2024 national bird checklist.

Peregrine falcon

Falco peregrinus

A powerful pointed-winged falcon with a dark hood and moustache. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident and passage migrant on the 2024 national bird checklist.

European pied flycatcher

Ficedula hypoleuca

A small black-and-white flycatcher with a bold white wing patch. Confirmed in Georgia as a passage migrant on the 2024 national bird checklist; it is not listed as a breeding bird. Named photographs on this page are from Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park, 31 May 2015.

Semi-collared flycatcher

Ficedula semitorquata

A small black-and-white flycatcher with a broken white neck-collar. Confirmed in Georgia as a breeding migrant on the 2024 national bird checklist.

Eurasian jay

Garrulus glandarius

A medium-sized woodland corvid with a black crown in the Caucasus form and a bright blue wing panel. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident and breeder on the 2024 national bird checklist.

Collared pratincole

Glareola pratincola

A swallow-like wader of open ground near water, with a black throat collar and chestnut underwings. Confirmed in Georgia as a breeding migrant on the 2024 national bird checklist.

Griffon vulture

Gyps fulvus

A large pale-bodied vulture with dark flight feathers and a short tail. Confirmed in Georgia as a breeding resident and a migrant on the 2024 national bird checklist. Named colonies are documented in Vashlovani and Kazbegi.

Mtskheta — Mtianeti · Kakheti

Eurasian wryneck

Jynx torquilla

A small, cryptically barred woodpecker that feeds on ants on the ground. Confirmed in Georgia as a breeding bird and passage migrant on the 2024 national bird checklist. Named photographs on this page include Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park, 16 July 2015, and the Chorokhi Delta, 15 September 2014.

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Larus fuscus

A large gull with a dark back and yellow legs. Confirmed in Georgia on the 2024 national bird checklist as a passage migrant and a winter visitor; not treated as a breeding bird.

Samegrelo — Zemo Svaneti · Guria · Adjara

Common nightingale

Luscinia megarhynchos

A small, plain brown songbird with a rusty tail and a powerful song. Confirmed in Georgia as a breeding migrant on the 2024 national bird checklist; it does not stay the winter.

Black kite

Milvus migrans

A medium-sized bird of prey with a forked tail, not an eagle. Confirmed in Georgia on the 2024 national bird checklist as a year-round resident, a passage migrant, and a winter visitor. It passes the Batumi bottleneck in large numbers in autumn.

White wagtail

Motacilla alba

A slim, long-tailed black, white and grey wagtail. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident on the 2024 national bird checklist.

Adjara

Eurasian scops owl

Otus scops

A small owl with ear tufts and yellow eyes. Confirmed in Georgia as a breeding migrant on the 2024 national bird checklist; it does not stay through the winter.

European honey buzzard

Pernis apivorus

A medium-sized woodland raptor with a small, pigeon-like head and a long tail. It is not a true buzzard and does not eat honey. Confirmed in Georgia on the 2024 national bird checklist as a passage migrant. In autumn it is the most numerous raptor in the Batumi bottleneck.

Common pheasant

Phasianus colchicus

A large ground-living gamebird of floodplain scrub, riparian forest and semi-open foothills. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident on the 2024 national bird checklist. The species name refers to Colchis in western Georgia.

Samegrelo — Zemo Svaneti · Kakheti

Eurasian magpie

Pica pica

A black-and-white crow with a long graduated tail and noisy chatter. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident on the 2024 national bird checklist.

European green woodpecker

Picus viridis

A medium-sized green woodpecker with a red crown, black mask, and yellow rump. A year-round resident and breeder in Georgia.

European turtle dove

Streptopelia turtur

A small migratory dove with chestnut-and-black scaly upperparts and a black-and-white striped neck patch. Confirmed in Georgia as a breeding migrant on the 2024 national bird checklist; Vulnerable globally and nationally on that list.

Adjara

Tawny owl

Strix aluco

A medium-sized woodland owl with a round head, dark eyes and no ear tufts. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident and breeder on the 2024 national bird checklist.

Common blackbird

Turdus merula

A medium thrush: males are black with a yellow-orange bill; females are dark brown. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident on the 2024 national bird checklist.

Western barn owl

Tyto alba

A pale barn owl with a heart-shaped face and no ear tufts. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident and breeder on the 2024 national bird checklist.

Samegrelo — Zemo Svaneti · Adjara · Imereti +2

Eurasian hoopoe

Upupa epops

A crested bird with a long bill and black-and-white wings. Confirmed in Georgia as a breeding migrant on the 2024 national bird checklist; it does not stay the winter.