Rare newcomer
in the National Park!

The Schlierbach bird expert Hans Uhl has recorded the rock bunting in the Kalkalpen National Park for the first time. The population is estimated at 400-600 pairs in Austria and 30-40 pairs in Upper Austria. The first confirmed breeding evidence of this species in Upper Austria was recorded by bird specialist Norbert Pühringer on the Traunstein in 2002. Ten years later (2012/2013), breeding rock buntings were then detected on the opposite side of the Traunsee, on the Großer and Kleiner Sonnstein. "Until 2023, we ornithologists in Upper Austria had to assume that rock buntings would only occur very sporadically or in isolation on the rocky slopes of Lake Traun and possibly Lake Attersee, but now we can fortunately observe them in the Kalkalpen National Park and opposite in the area of the Kremsmauer, where an informant managed to find evidence of breeding," reports Hans Uhl. The rare rock bunting will presumably spread to other parts of the climatically favorable southern slopes of the national park. Valuable habitats are available to it there in the form of thinned-out forests, created by natural processes.