Златозар Боев [Zlatozar Boev]
29 December 1997 ·
volume 8 · pp. 147–154 ·
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Abstract: [no abstract available originally]
[Summary]: Recent Bulgarian avifauna includes 50 families and 391 species, 256 of them breeding (118 Passeriform). One species (Tetrao tetrix) is extinct since the end of 19th century and 10 other (Pelecanus onocrotalus, Egretta alba, Gypaetus barbatus, Falco biarmicus, Grus grus, Anthropoides virgo, Otis tarda, Otis tetrax, Gallinago gallinago and Glaucidium passerinum) disappeared as nesting birds since 1950-ies. One subspecies (Phasianus colchicus colchicus) had lost his genetic purity because of the crossbreeding with other introduced subspecies. Three species (Pandion haliaaetus, Aegypius monachus and Haliaaetus albicilla) considered disappeared in the country have been established as nesting after 1993. 73 % of the European avian species occur in Bulgaria and 52,9 % of the breeding birds of Europe nest throughout the country. 75,5 % of the Bulgarian birds species are breeding, but 28,5 % of them are represented by their peripheral parts of the ranges. The southern limit of the breeding range for 37 species (14,4 %), northern limit for 30 species (11,7), western and eastern limit for 3 species (1,2 %) each, pass through the Bulgarian territory. Thirteen subspecies of very limited distribution throughout Europe breeds in Bulgaria. The birds of Bulgaria can be grouped in 20 types by their distribution: Palearctic (81 species — 31,7 %), European (24 — 9,4 %), Holarctic and European-Turkestanian (23 — 9,0 % each), Euroasiatic-African (18 — 7,0 %), Mediterranean and Turkestanian-Mediterranean (14 — 5,5 %), Cosmopolitan — 12 — 4,7 %), Indo-African (10 — 3,9 %,), Paleomontane (6 — 2,3 %), Paleoxeric and Sarmatian (5 — 2,0 % each), Paleo-xeromontane (4 — 1,6 %), Turkestanian, Siberian-Canadian (3 — 1,2 % each), Siberian, Mongolian-Tibetian (2 — 1,2 % each). North-Atlanitc, Afrotropical, and Nearctic (1 — 0,4 % each). Bulgarian territory lies on two of the main trans-Mediterranean routes (Via Aristotelis and Via Pontica). All these peculiarities characterize Bulgaria as one of the most important countries in Europe for the preservation of the continental avifaunistic diversity.