Wild Istanbul: Storks, Eagles and the Dolphins of the Bosphorus

The natural side of Istanbul, from the storks and birds of prey that funnel over the Bosphorus on migration and the bottlenose dolphins that live in the strait to the woods of Belgrad Forest and the city’s parks, with a directory of the parks in our guide.

Istanbul stands on one of the great crossroads of the natural world as well as the human one. The Bosphorus, the narrow strait between Europe and Asia, is a bottleneck for the soaring birds of Eastern Europe on their way to and from Africa, and beneath the ferries, dolphins hunt the fish that run between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara.

This is a short, honest guide to Istanbul’s natural side: the migration, the dolphins and the forest on the city’s northern edge. Bring binoculars, a hat and patience; the sky over the hills does the rest.

The Bosphorus flyway

Storks and birds of prey cannot cross wide stretches of open sea: they ride the rising warm air over land, so the narrow Bosphorus is one of their great crossing points. BirdLife International lists it as an Important Bird Area where more than 20,000 storks and raptors regularly pass in spring and autumn.

White and black storks and lesser spotted eagles stream over in long, circling columns; in September 1990, observers counted more than 11,000 lesser spotted eagles over each side of the strait on a single day.

The hills on both sides of the strait, the Çamlıca hills on the Asian shore and the heights above Sarıyer on the European side, are the traditional places to watch, on clear days in late summer and autumn.

Belgrad Forest and the parks

North of the Bosphorus villages, Belgrad Forest is Istanbul’s great green escape, with walking and running trails, picnic areas and the old dams and reservoirs that once supplied the city with water. In the city, the wooded slopes of Yıldız Park and the hillside lawns of Emirgan Park above the Bosphorus are the places for birdsong, and white storks feed in the meadows on the city’s edge.

Feature: the dolphins of the Bosphorus

Three kinds of cetacean are found in the Bosphorus, according to the scientists of the Turkish Marine Research Foundation, TÜDAV, who have studied them for three decades: the bottlenose dolphin, the common dolphin and the harbour porpoise. Only the bottlenose dolphins live in the strait all year round; the other two pass through with the great fish migrations of spring and autumn.

Watch for their fins from the ferries, especially in the quieter upper Bosphorus.

Did you know? Of the three kinds of dolphin and porpoise seen in the Bosphorus, only the bottlenose dolphin is a year-round resident of the strait.

Twice a year, the storks and eagles of half a continent pass over the Bosphorus.

Our advice

Our advice: for the migration, go up to the Çamlıca hills or above Sarıyer on a clear morning in late August or September and scan the sky from mid-morning, when the warm air starts to rise. For dolphins, take the full Şehir Hatları Bosphorus ferry and watch the water on the way up to Anadolu Kavağı. Keep to the trails in Belgrad Forest and take your rubbish home.