Birds, sea turtles and reptiles of North Cyprus

Endemic birds, migration and bird ringing

BirdLife Cyprus describes Cyprus as lying on one of the major bird migration routes across the Mediterranean, a stopover for birds travelling between Africa and Europe twice a year. The Migration Atlas profile of KUŞKOR, the North Cyprus Society for the Protection of Birds and Nature, places the island on the Eastern Mediterranean flyway and says its resident, breeding, passage and wintering bird populations are not well studied.

According to the same profile, KUŞKOR officials and British ringers founded a bird-ringing scheme in North Cyprus in 2001. It follows British Trust for Ornithology rules, joined EURING in 2015 and has ringed over 6,500 birds of 132 species with volunteers. BirdLife Cyprus says the Cyprus wheatear is common from March to October and winters in countries such as Ethiopia and Sudan, while most Cyprus warblers stay on the island all year.

This section adds migration and monitoring detail to the short bird list on flora and fauna. Where a source describes the island as a whole, the text says so; claims about the north are limited to what the sources place there.

Important Bird Areas and birdwatching sites in the north

The 2014 inventory Important Bird Areas of Cyprus (Hellicar, Anastasi, Beton and Snape, BirdLife Cyprus) was compiled with KUŞKOR under a 2010-2011 EU-funded bi-communal project. It includes the Pentadaktylos (Kyrenia or Beşparmak) mountains, the Kormakitis and Karpasia peninsulas, the Mesaoria plain, the Famagusta lakes and the Mia Milia sewage treatment ponds north of the UN-controlled buffer zone near Nicosia. For these sites the report notes that EU law is suspended under Protocol 10 of the Accession Treaty of Cyprus, so Special Protection Area designation is not currently possible.

The report describes the Kyrenia range as rich in qualifying species, with breeding numbers of Cyprus warbler "as high as anywhere", breeding Bonelli's eagles and peregrine falcons, and non-breeding raptors such as honey buzzard, black kite, pallid harrier, red-footed falcon and Eleonora's falcon. It names quarries as the main threat and illegal shooting and poison baits as potential threats to raptors.

Outside the inventory, OSME reports KUŞKOR bird hides at the Kukla wetlands and greater flamingos in the salt marshes at Silverbeach on the east coast. The Birdingplaces site describes Cape Apostolos Andreas (Zafer Burnu) as a migration point in spring and autumn. Coastal access is covered on beaches and coast.

Sea turtle nesting beaches and the season

According to the TRNC Environmental Protection Department (Çevre Koruma Dairesi, release of 9 December 2024), the nesting season runs from May to October. Turtles lay from May to mid-July, a nest holds about 100 eggs on average, and hatchlings emerge after about two months of incubation. The department says nesting beaches lie within the biodiversity network created by the Environment Law, and cites the IUCN categories Vulnerable for Caretta caretta and Endangered for Chelonia mydas.

For 2024 the department reports 1,834 nests on the Karpaz beaches between 11 May and 14 August, 94.1% of them green turtle nests; 1,585 nests on the Akdeniz and Alagadi beaches; 77 at Karşıyaka (Güzelyalı); and 314 loggerhead nests in Famagusta bay. Monitoring was carried out by Taşkent Nature Park (Karşıyaka and Karpaz), SPOT (Akdeniz and Alagadi) and the Eastern Mediterranean University Underwater Research Centre (Famagusta bay).

Mongabay (March 2021) reports that SPOT, the Society for the Protection of Turtles, works with University of Exeter scientists and the department. The beaches themselves are described on beaches and coast.

Rules on nesting beaches and what visitors are asked to do

The Environmental Protection Department lists rules for beaches used by turtles during the May to October season: no umbrellas within 35 metres of the sea and no digging; screen lights visible from the beach; leave no belongings or litter; no boat speeds above 5 miles per hour within 1 mile of the shore; no motor vehicles on the beach; no walking on the beach with lights at night; no pets left loose; and no fires.

Mongabay (2021) reports that visitors can watch nest excavations on Alagadi beach and that volunteers avoid torches so as not to disturb turtles. It names drowning in fishing nets and plastic waste as threats. For injured turtles found at sea, the department names the Taşkent Nature Park Rehabilitation Centre (telephone 1190) and the Meritta Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Centre.

Snakes recorded in Cyprus and their venom status

A poster by the Republic of Cyprus Department of Forests, published by the Press and Information Office, describes eight snakes of the island: the blunt-nosed viper, whose bite it calls "extremely dangerous for humans"; the Montpellier snake, "poisonous but not extremely dangerous"; the cat snake, "poisonous but not dangerous to humans"; and five non-venomous species. The contents of Baier, Sparrow and Wiedl's book The Amphibians and Reptiles of Cyprus (2009) list accounts for eleven snakes, adding the Levantine dwarf snake, the dice snake and Dahl's whip snake.

For the north, Göçmen and colleagues (North-Western Journal of Zoology, 2008) report nine snake species found during three trips in 2007, at localities from Gönyeli and the Karpaz peninsula to Selvili Tepe on the Kyrenia range. They write that the endemic Cyprus whip snake is known only from the south, while Dahl's whip snake and the dice snake are found only in the north. The local name gufi is explained on flora and fauna.

Taşkent Nature Park, quoted by Gündem Kıbrıs, says these snakes are protected and that walking away without disturbing a snake met in the wild is enough. For a snake near homes, it asks people to keep it in sight and call the 1190 Wildlife Support Line.

Snakebite first aid as stated by WHO

This section paraphrases the World Health Organization's snakebite first-aid guidance and does not replace medical care. WHO says high-quality antivenoms are the most effective treatment, so the priority is to reach a health facility as soon as possible. Emergency medicine specialist Dr Öykü Bakalım Akdöner, quoted by Haber Kıbrıs (26 June 2025), advises going to the nearest health facility or calling 112.

WHO's first-aid guidance says to move away from where the bite happened, reassure the person, remove anything tight from the bitten part, keep the person completely still, splint the limb and transport them to a health facility. It says never to use a tight arterial tourniquet, and to avoid wound incision, suction, "black stones", herbal medicines and other traditional or unproven methods. Taşkent Nature Park, quoted by Gündem Kıbrıs, advises going to the nearest health facility without delay after a Cyprus viper bite.

Lizards, chameleon, geckos and freshwater turtles

Svana and colleagues (Ecologia Balkanica, 2025) record eleven lizard species on Cyprus in five families. Two are endemic species, the Cyprus rock agama (Laudakia cypriaca) and the Troodos lizard (Phoenicolacerta troodica), and four are endemic subspecies; they note that Schreiber's fringe-fingered lizard is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Their field survey covered only areas under the effective control of the Republic of Cyprus.

For the north, Göçmen and colleagues (2008) report eleven lizards and three turtles found in 2007. In their table, Kotschy's gecko, the Turkish gecko, the agama, the snake-eyed lizard and the striped skink appear at many of the localities surveyed, and the text places the Balkan terrapin at the Asidere stream in Nicosia. They describe Schneider's skink as very rare, seen at Gönyeli and Çayırova.