Birds are the Mirrors of our Landscape
What if I tell you that birds are like a mirror? What would you say they mirror to us?
Yes, they are beautiful. They sing nicely. We see them, and we think of spring.
However, they tell us a lot about our landscape. Based on the birds that are present we can predict what sort of landscape elements are present (bushes, water, trees etc).
For example, the corncrake – one of the rarest birds in Western Europe – need high grass and marshes. Red backed shrike, catches small insects and small mammals and hangs them on the thorns of thorny bushes to store them for later – therefore for them to survive we need to maintain our bushes with thorns (e.g. rosehip). White throated dipper, swims under water to catch prey – therefore it is essential to keep our waters clean.
Of course, now the question comes: How can we ensure that birds stay, that our biodiversity remains rich? How can we preserve our mosaic landscape to invite birds and biodiversity?
One of our answers is: small farms and farmers.
If farmers tend to their land in a way that it keeps biodiversity rich, then our landscape also forms this way. One way to do this is through using agroecology (traditional old-school ways of working with the land, permaculture, no dig approach and so on).
Let’s recap: More agroecological farmers = higher biodiversity = richer landscape = more (types) birds and this is true the other way around as well!
Therefore, October was our month to advocate for birds!
In the summer we finalised 3 bird panels. Overall there are 45 birds on these panels – all of which are characteristic of our region. The panels are situated along the bikepath of Kalotaszentkiraly-Zentelke (Sâncraiu) with the support of the Municipality of Sancraiu and local carpenter, Laczi Balázs. The pictures of the birds portrayed in the bird panel are from Cornell University, with their approval.
After the summer, our team carefully planned out 2 events for 2 different target groups with the scope to: 1) Inaugurate the Bird Panel and 2) To increase its visibility. So we did. Dear Birds, you are going to be seen!
OCT 21, 2025
On this sunny day – during the Alternative School Week of Ady Endre Sancraiu School – ALPA team member Zsofia Gaudi and Adamosy Gabor (from 16Trees association) have facilitated a morning full of games, crafts and folks songs. Parallel to these activities, Lorincz Barbos facilitated a bird ringing activity in Sancraiu village, near the school. The groups were able to catch a Blue Tit, a Chiffchaff, a Great Tit and even a rare Kingfisher. All of which can be found on our local birdpanels: https://birds.alpa.land/.
120 children paraded for birds
After the morning full preparations – all members of the school met at 11:00 to create a parade through the village of Sancraiu. All children (and teachers) came with their own crafts, their ceramic bird water-whistle and their good mood. We started our parade-walk from the school, made a stop at the Municipality to invite the mayor of Sâncraiu (Kalotaszeg), Póka András György, to join us and walked on the main road to the entrance of the village where one of the three bird panels can be found.
On the spot interview: here. (in Hungarian)
When arriving to the scene, Lars Veraart – co-founder of ALPA and driving force behind the bird panels – gave an opening speech, followed by Póka András György’s words about the successful cooperation between the village, ALPA and the Sancraiu School and, Lõrinc Bǎrboş said a couple of words about the importance of biodiversity of our region.
With the support of some young peers – we released 50 pigeons into the sky as a symbolic gesture for the inauguration of the panel, which was filled by a folk song about birds and uncovering the bird panel.
The event was closed with warm tea and bird shaped cookies made by Szõcs Boruss Erika.
We thank all who participated and helped organise this event. From bringing the pigeons, to setting up the tables. Special thank you to the teachers of Ady Endre School for co-organising and supporting us continuously.
AND , the story does not end here!
Only a few days later , we were ready for the long-standing annual Rosehip Festival. For the first time, ALPA was among the many stands during the festival – offering bike tours for the visitors of the festival
OCT 25, 2025
The whole team of ALPA (and our main supporters aka our families) participated in the Rosehip Festival. It was a lucrative few hours.
Borbála Láng and Carsten Veraart offered bike tours to 2 of our bird panels, accompanied by interesting facts about our bioregion, and of course our birds.
Others stayed at the stand having meaningful conversations about the common lands, about biodiversity, farming and our bioregion. We made new connections and friends for future bioregional activities
For the first time ever we also offered people to buy m2 of common-land for the first future farmer of ALPA. Surprisingly, during these few hours, more than 25 people donated and 170m2 of land has been bought for our future farmer!
Having so many birds in Tara Calatei/Kalotaszeg is not something to take for granted. Having one of the richest biodiversity in Europe is not something to forget. The birds here are a testament – living proof for our biodiversity, of a healthy ecosystem and our potential as a region. Seeing these birds year-by-year ought to be also a Call for Action and a reflection of how we farm, what we eat, and how we care for what is around us.
