site.btaSeason's First Storks Arrive in Samokov Region

The first storks of the season have arrived in Samokov Municipality, landing in the village of Dospey. Several stork nests can be seen there, with the largest one built on the dome of Saints Peter and Paul Church.

Local people say the storks usually return around mid-March and fly away around mid-August.

The population of the White Stork, the species most commonly found in Bulgaria, is about 220,000, ornithologist Petar Yankov of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds told BTA. This accounts for almost the entire population in Europe.

The population of white storks in Bulgaria is increasing, according to data from the Eighth International White Stork Census, which was presented at BTA's National Press Club in Sofia in October 2025. There are 9,527 white stork nests registered in the country, of which 7,749 nests are occupied by pairs. In the 2014 census, there were 6,981 nests, of which 5,825 were occupied.