AVITOPIA - Birds of Switzerland

Switzerland is located in southern Central Europe and has no sea coasts. One can distinguish between three major landscape areas, the middle mountainous Jura, the densely populated central plateau and the high mountainous Alps with the pre-Alps. The highest point in Switzerland at 4634 m is the Dufourspitze, the lowest point is at 193 m on Lake Maggiore. The triple watershed between the North Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea is located on the Lunghin Pass. Switzerland has around 1500 mostly small lakes. The climate is oceanic, but depends heavily on the altitude. Actually, many bird species live or hibernate in Switzerland, but due to the increasing use of the landscape by humans, 40% of the bird species in Switzerland are now on the red list of endangered species. Switzerland has over 1,070 natural forest reserves, which together only make up 3% of the Swiss forest area. This also includes Switzerland's only national park in Graubünden. There are no endemics in Switzerland, but at least some bird species that specialize in alpine habitats and are therefore not easy to find elsewhere in Europe. BirdLife International has identified more than 30 IBAs (Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas) in Switzerland, the majority of which are valuable wetlands.This multilingual (en, es, de, fr, ja, cn) bird guide introduces the entire bird life of Switzerland in colored pictures. As a bonus, links to HD videos of 145 bird species and to audios of more than 85 species are included. Read more