Cormorants establish themselves on the Kishon slopes • Watch Cormorants live

The cormorant colony grows and settles in Kishon

The national census data shows that in Kishon there are 2,484 individuals of the Great Cormorant species and the roosting colony of cormorants down the stream is one of the largest and most significant in the country.

Also this year, at the beginning of January, a national count of the great cormorant was carried out at various sites in the country, including the lodging site on the Avenue of Eucalyptus Trees in the Kishon Bank, in the Histadrut Bridge area in Haifa.

with first light

The counting is done at first light, when the birds take off from the eucalyptus trees to look for food, every individual that flies is counted. 2,484 cormorants were counted at the lodging site in Nahal, which is close to 20% of all individuals counted this year in Israel.

Arrive in fall and winter

The count was carried out by the head of ecology at the Kishon River Authority, Ma'ayan Zion, the supervisor at the Kishon River Authority, Alon Ben Meir and the head of the environment, Eitan Zantner.

A great cormorant arrives in our country during the fall and winter in Israel and stays in our areas until the end of March - beginning of April.

The cormorant feeds on fish and hunts its food by diving in shallow water. The data of the national census of the Nature and Parks Authority shows that this year 14,573 great cormorants are wintering in Israel. This number is about 2,000 individuals lower than last year, and about 600 less than the average over the past decade.

Does bird flu have an effect?

According to the professionals at the river authority, it is not known whether the bird flu has an effect on the decrease in numbers nationally. According to the analysis of the trends, there is no sharp change in the decrease in the number of individuals over the years and from the data in the field, a number of individual cormorants were found dead in the Hula valley and the springs valley, but it was not checked if the cause of death was indeed caused by bird flu.

Attractive to cormorants

It should be noted that despite the decrease in national numbers, the details counted in Kishon this year are about 200 higher than last year, and the accommodation site in Kishon is ranked second largest this year! The lodging site in Kishon is included in the list of lodging sites counted from 2007, in light of the fact that this site is particularly attractive to cormorants, which is reflected in the abundance of fish.

In recent years, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Kishon River Authority have been working to continuously improve the quality of the effluents discharged into the river. There is an increase in the wealth of animals, which creates sufficient living conditions for waterfowl. The population at this lodging site has increased since last year and indicates its establishment in the area.

See cormorants 24/7

In order to make nature accessible to the public and to study the behavior of the cormorants, this year the Kishon River Authority installed a camera that records the sleeping colony live 24/7, in collaboration with researcher Dr. Moti Charter from the University of Haifa and the Shamir Research Institute. Watch cormorants live all the time.

Koromorans in the Kishon lodging colony • Watch

Sharon Nissim, CEO of the Kishon River Authority:

These days, the Kishon River Authority is working to establish a national bird park in the Kishon salt marsh area in collaboration with the Open Areas Fund and KKL-Junk. The park will make a new and unique area accessible to the public, and will invite visitors to observe various species of birds that live in the river, including the great cormorant. This park will be developed as part of a park upstream of the Kishon River and will join the chain of parks that exist and are planned to be established in Kishon and its tributaries in the next decade.