Ural

The Ural Federal District of Russia covers an area of 1,818,500 square kilometres and consists of the oblasts of Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan and Tyumen and the autonomous Okruga of Yamalia and Khantia-Mansia. It has a population approaching 12.5 million people. The administrative centre of Sverdlovsk oblast is also the regional capital – the city of Yekaterinburg, where around 1.5 million people live.

The district is located around the Ural Mountains, between the East European and West Siberian Plains. It is considered a part of the Eurasian Steppe, which extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the end of the Ural River near Orsk City. The region’s rivers include the Tobol, Iset, Tura, Pechora, Lozva and Severnaya-Sosva rivers. The southern rivers, the Ural, Kama, Belaya and Chusovaya rivers, run into the Caspian Sea. Western rivers, especially northwestern ones, are more affluent. They have high and long floods from May to June. The southeastern rivers are much narrower and may dry up in summer. All are fed by melting snow and precipitation. The largest lakes of the east and central and southern Ural’s include the Tawatui, Argazi, Uvildy and Turgoyak. The deepest lake is Bolshoe Schuchye. Rivers and lakes are both used for water supply and transport and some have been dammed, creating the Kama and Votkinsk Reservoirs.

Chusovaya River – ©Artem Murugov CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The landscape is dominated by steppes and forest. The steppes lie mostly in the south, especially the southeastern Urals, with meadow steppes developing in the lower parts of the mountain slopes, often covered in wildflowers and grasses, with much of the land cultivated. To the south the meadow steppes become sparse and drier, and the steep gravelly slopes of mountains and hills are covered with rocky steppes.

The river valleys contain willow, poplar and other shrubs. The forest landscapes of the Urals are more diverse, especially in the southern part. The western area is dominated by dark coniferous taiga forest, which changes to mixed and deciduous forests in the south. The eastern mountain slopes have light coniferous taiga forest, and the southern Ural is mostly diverse with both coniferous and deciduous forests, with trees such as large oak, birch, maple and elm. The northern Ural is dominated by Siberian species of fir, cedar, spruce and pine. Further north the forests are much sparser. There are also areas of swamp, lichen bogs and shrubby areas with dwarf bushes and berry bushes like blueberry, cloudberry, etc.

Birding the Ural Federal District

The forests are rich with fauna, with large mammals such as elk, brown bear, wolf, lynx and wolverine, as well as squirrel, fox, sable, etc. Most of the reptiles and amphibians are found in the more southern areas, including common viper, grass snakes and several lizards. There is a rich avi fauna too, with Capercaillie, Black Grouse, Hazel grouse and Nutcracker in the forests and in the more open areas, songbirds such as Nightingale and Common Redstart. The steppes tend to have grazing animals and rodents such as hares, with gophers, susliks and jerboa. Here there are many birds of prey, including Rough-legged Buzzard and Snowy Owl.

Zyuratkul National Park – ©Dmitry Shirokov CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The region is interesting because of its location: the Ural Mountains represent a natural border between Europe and Asia. In such a way, the flora and fauna of the region is very rich and can have radical differences from one place to another. On the south of the Urals lays the steppe zone where it’s possible to see such birds as Steppe Eagle, Imperial Eagle, Demoiselle Crane and Little Bustard. Along the Belaya-river remain large plots of old forests, and numerous populations of predatory birds, for example, Eagle Owl breed here. Closer to the north, the steppe changes to mountain taiga. Fast-flowing rivers with stone bottoms, taiga forests, elfin woodlands and mountain tundra are found there. The highest site rises to 1894m, and the usual heights in the Middle Ural is mostly between 800-1000m above sea level. Dark coniferous forests dominate on the west mountain sides, and on the east side pine and cedar-pine are more common. More than 150 species of birds have been recorded here, and among them there are a lot of Siberian species, such as Red-flanked Bluetail, Black-throated Thrush and Pine Bunting. Up in the taiga forests and the tundra are Willow Grouse, Tundra Grouse, Common Dotterel and many others.