Excitement has grown over the past few days within Israel’s birdwatching community due to the appearance of the Demoiselle Crane, the White-throated Robin and the Long-tailed Duck, an unusual sighting that is considered both exceptional and intriguing for Israel.
Photo: Yaron Charka, KKL-JNF
The Hula Lake Park, run by Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF), is situated in the Hula Valley, which serves as a critical, high-volume bottleneck along the Eurasia-Africa flyway, with over 500 million migratory birds passing through each year. Millions of them stop to rest, feed and rejuvenate in the park’s grasses, wetlands and lakes, making Hula Lake Park (known in Hebrew as Agamon Hula) a world-class birding site.
The Demoiselle Crane is one of the most elegant members of the crane family and is characterized by its tall, slender build, distinctive call, and striking presence in wetlands and marshes. In Israel, it is a rare visitor, and each sighting draws significant interest from nature enthusiasts and professionals from the field.
Photo: Yaron Charka, KKL-JNF
Spotted alongside the Demoiselle Crane was the White-throated Robin, a small, colorful songbird typically associated with northern woodland habitats and not commonly seen in the valley. Its appearance in the Hula Valley adds another layer of interest and raises questions among researchers about migration patterns and the potential impact of climate change on species distribution.
Two of the rare birds were spotted at Hula Lake Park by Yaron Charka, KKL-JNF’s Chief Ornithologist, who described the moment: “This is a very exciting and rare sighting. The park was full of a wide variety of migratory birds, some that had not yet migrated north after the winter, alongside others that had already arrived for the nesting season. The presence of both the Demoiselle Crane and the White-throated Robin in the same place and at the same time reinforces just how important Hula Lake Park is as a hub for migratory and vagrant species passing through. It’s a place that continues to surprise, even after years of observation."
Photo: Yaron Charka, KKL-JNF
Two days after Yaron’s observation, Guy Shavit, from the KKL-JNF research hub at the Tel-Hai University in Kiryat Shmona, spotted not far from Hula Lake Park, the first Long-tailed Duck ever recorded in northern Israel.
The Long-tailed Duck, together with the Demoiselle Crane and the White-throated Robin, have drawn many birdwatchers to the Hula Valley in recent days.