Kuusamo, Finland
Kuusamo, in northeastern Finland, lies at the heart of the boreal taiga—a vast landscape of ancient spruce forests, mirror-like lakes, and peat bogs stretching towards the Arctic. In summer, with almost endless daylight and forests alive with birdsong, it becomes one of Europe's finest destinations for photographing the special birds of this northern wilderness.
The primary goal of this journey was the Red-flanked Bluetail, one of the taiga's most sought-after songbirds. Brilliantly coloured, the male's vivid blue upperparts and warm orange flanks make it a jewel of the northern forest. We were fortunate enough to see and hear up to 30 singing individuals during our week at the location. Despite this, those that have seen these birds in their breeding habitat know that they are very difficult to photograph despite being relatively common in the right habitat. This due to that they are constantly singing from the top of the tallest spruce trees on the cliff edges of the taiga mountains, making it challenging to get eye level views.
Alongside this iconic species, the forests and wetlands of Kuusamo offered encounters with Little Gulls over fog covered lakes, Rustic Buntings, breeding Velvet Scooters to make up a rich diversity of boreal birds that thrive in what is an increasingly rare pocket on old untouched forest.
