Since January 5, Turkmenistan has been hosting the International Winter Waterbird Count. This is one of the events commemorating World Wetlands Day, celebrated annually on February 2. This is an anniversary count and has been conducted under the auspices of Wetland International for 60 years.

The surveys are carried out primarily by environmental specialists and nature reserve employees, but there are also volunteers who have joined this global movement.

In some regions of the country, censuses have already been completed (Khazar and Kaplankyr Nature Reserves), while they are ongoing in other velayats.

For example, today, census takers visited the Kopetdag Reservoir and Altyn Köl (Kurtlin Lake).

The team included Professor Eldar Rustamov, a renowned ornithologist with many years of field experience, ecologist Batyr Taganov, and Turkmenportal journalist Maral Hydyrova.

During the trip, the banks of two reservoirs were examined, and birds wintering on them were recorded.

During the survey, optical equipment was used: binoculars with high optical resolution, cameras.

During the observations, representatives of 17 bird species were observed. That day, counters encountered coots, pochards (red-headed and red-crested), mallards, cormorants (great and little cormorants), grebes (great and little grebes), herons (great and great white), white-tailed eagles, black-headed gulls, and other birds. Observing them was only possible from a distance: any attempt to approach caused the birds to take flight and fly to a safer distance.

The results of this trip will be included in a general statistical report on the winter bird census conducted in the country, which will be presented in early February in Ashgabat during a scientific conference. Turkmenistan will thus celebrate World Wetlands Day, which was timed to coincide with the signing of the Ramsar Convention on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of the World's Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat. The Convention aims to protect wetlands of international importance as key waterfowl habitats. Turkmenistan has been a party to the Convention since 2009.