Volga

The Volga Federal District consists of the republics of Chuvasia, Udmertia, Bashkortostan, Mordovia, Novogorod and Tatarstan; the krai of Perm and the oblasts of Orenburg, Samara, Ulyanovsk, Penza, Saratov, Nizhny-Novogorod, Mari El and Kirov. It covers an area of 1,037,000 km² with a total population of 29 million people. The largest city and administrative capital is Nizhny-Novogorod with around 1.25 million citizens.

The republics and oblasts vary greatly in size. The smallest, Chuvash Republic covers 18,343 km², but has over two thousand rivers with the major ones being the Volga, the Sura, and the Tsivil. There are also over four hundred lakes including large reservoirs where Volga is dammed. It has a population of around 1.2 million people a third of whom live in the capital, its largest city Cheboksary.

One of its major nature reserves, Khvalynshy National Park is located in Saratov oblast, which covers 100,200 km² with a population of 2.4 million; almost a million of whom live in the capital city of the same name. The area is largely flat lying in the plain of the Volga.

Khvalynsky National Park – ©Рощина Екатерина Владимировна CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The largest region is Perm krai covering 160,000 km², with a population of 2.5 million people, one million o0f who live in its capital, also called Perm. Ther district is located east of the East European Plain and west of the Ural Mountains. IOt has an incredible 29,000 rivers, only two of which exceed 200km, the Kama River and the Chusovaya River. Forests cover over 70% of Perm Krai’s area. Coniferous forests predominate, with deciduous forests more common in the south. Consequently, there are 62 species of mammals, more than 270 species of birds, 39 species of fishes, 6 species of reptile and 9 species of amphibians. Although smaller at 143,600 km², Bashkortostann Republic has a population of over four million a quarter of whom live in the capital, Ufa. It is mountainous in part but has many lakes and more than 13,000 rivers. Over 30% is wooded with many national parks and reserves covering over 10,000 km². The area is also rich in minerals and coal and oil deposits.

Birding Volga

The Volga Federal District spans many diverse ecosystems – from the taiga forests in the north to the arid steppes in the south; from steep mountains to lush lakes and rivers. This creates a rich avifauna with over 300 recorded species, including many birds of prey, waterfowl, with iconic nesting species like White-tailed Eagle, Imperial Eagle, and Siberian Rubythroat.

Samarskaya Luka – ©Михаил Шнейдер CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Roughly in the middle of the Volga district lie areas like the Samarskaya Luka National Park and Mordovia State Nature Reserve, which serve as vital stopover and breeding sites for many iconic species such as the Black Stork, Honey-buzzard, and Middle-spotted Woodpecker.

The Volga delta and its floodplain is known as one of Russia’s top birding regions. Its extensive reedbeds and wetlands attract large numbers of waterfowl, including Purple Heron, Glossy Ibis, Spoonbill, and White-headed Duck.

The Ural Mountians and their foothills with their forest-rich river banks suchn as in like Bashkortostan support an unusually high density of birds of prey, including Peregrine Falcon, Eagle Owl, and Golden Eagle.

Other notable Birds across the federal district includes White-tailed Eagle, Eastern Imperial Eagle, Osprey, Saker Falcon, and Steppe Eagle. Waterbirds & Waders include Terek Sandpiper, Red-necked Grebe, and Great Reed Warbler and its forests hold a lot of Passerines; not just Siberian Rubythroat but manynmmore suchn as Eurasian Tree Sparrow and Golden Oriole.