From the Sky: a new film on raptor poaching at Batumi

The film follows local conservationist Gizo Seskuria through the Batumi bottleneck, the narrow migration corridor between the sea and the mountains, and through the communities that share this landscape with the autumn migration.

Many scenes were filmed at the Batumi Raptor Count stations, where migrating raptors are counted every autumn.

Fauna & Flora made the film with Georgian colleagues and young falconers. The falconers work with the support of the organisation’s raptor conservation programme in western Georgia.

A central thread of the film is Georgian falconers, who hunt with birds of prey and also work to stop poaching.

The film shows how local knowledge and tradition can become part of protecting birds, while keeping falconry itself safe and sustainable. Falconry is presented as part of the solution, not as the source of the problem.

The intended audience reflects that approach: local hunting communities, the Georgian public, and viewers abroad. That is why the film exists in both English and Georgian.

The Batumi bottleneck is one of the key points on the raptor migration route. Each autumn, more than a million raptors pass through it. What happens here, both poaching and the work to stop it, affects birds from a far wider area than Adjara.

One day this season shows the scale: on 4 October 2026, 239,735 raptors were counted at Batumi, the second-biggest day in Batumi Raptor Count history. Profiles of the migrants that pass the corridor are on the birds hub.

The film is on YouTube: From the Sky on YouTube. It was released in English and Georgian.

For more context, Batumi Raptor Count also points to an earlier film, Worlds Collide (directed by Nicholas Rodd), about the migration, falconers and conservationists. More reports from the corridor are in News.