The staff of the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve have been watching Red List birds.

On April 27, 2015, the great egret was first recorded in the strictly protected area. Another representative of the Herons – the grey heron (Ardea cinerea) – is common for the Oka River. The bird often flies into small water ponds of the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve. The great egret (Ardea alba) is a south species, common for temperate and tropical latitudes. However, its distribution area is gradually increasing northward. Being rare, accidental birds for the Moscow region, recently beautiful herons with elegant snow-white plumages are being found here more and more often.

On Monday, April 27, at about 17.00 Evgeny Grigoriev, the Director of the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve, observed a great white egret in a pond at the southern border of the Biosphere Reserve. This is the first stated case of a large white heron observation in the reserve territory.

On May 14, the hunting osprey was seen in the buffer zone of the reserve in the floodplain of the Oka River near Nikiforovo village. The bird hunted for a long time, hovered really high, then came down to 20-30 meters and started flying quickly over the water, hanging in the air, watching the fish; it plunged into the water with the head and immediately soared and flew away to a safe place to eat the prey.

The osprey (Pandion haliaetus) is a beautiful big bird of prey included in the Red List of Russia. Unlike many other predators – eagles, kites and hawks – it never attacks birds and rarely attacks small mammals. The osprey diet almost consists of fish. The osprey inhabits the globe, but it lives only in the places with vast transparent water ponds.