Lake Van basin hosts Siberian whooper swans

VAN

Turkey’s Lake Van basin, which is home to many different bird species, hosts whooper swans from Siberia and northern regions as the weather gets colder.

The basin, which hosts hundreds of bird species with its wide reeds and wetlands, is filled with flamingos in the summer and whooper swans in the winter.

Nature and photography enthusiasts who come to Erciş district in the eastern province of Van take pictures of the swans.

Özdemir Adızel, a biology professor at Yüzüncü Yıl University in Van, told Anadolu Agency that the whooper swans came to the region to spend the winter this year as well.

Noting that most of the swans shelter on the shores of Erciş, Adızel said: “It is a species that migrates to our region to spend the winter. Towards the spring, they head north again. The species, also known as the white goose in the region, is under hunting pressure despite conservation efforts.”

Photography enthusiast Meryem Bilgin said the region witnesses a different beauty in every period of the year.

“We came back here a few months ago. We watched and photographed the migration of flamingos. When flamingos migrated, whooper swans came to their places. We wanted to see this beauty. We got very nice images with our friends,” she added.