Israel - Bulgaria Joint Issue - Bird Migration

Bird Migration

Date of Issue : 13 September 2016

Here is a beautiful stamp for bird lovers featuring migration of storks. It's a beautiful stamp depicting very scientific monitoring of birds by the scientists. The most beautiful part of this stamp is its tab which shows a group of beautiful storks in the water !!

The Postal Services of Israel and Bulgaria  prepared a special stamp on common theme “Migrating Birds” to strengthen and sustain their connection. The philatelic item depicting the migration of storks between Bulgaria and Israel has an important historical meaning that makes this stamp more valuable and sought-after among collectors worldwide. 

Migrating Birds

The Republic of Bulgaria lies on the Balkan Peninsula in Eastern Europe. The State of Israel is situated on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, in the heart of the Middle East.

Some 500 million birds migrate through Israel’s skies twice a year, thus making it a significant global crossroads, especially for the birds of Western Asia and Eastern Europe in general, and of Bulgaria in particular. The White Stork is one of 280 bird species that migrate over Israel. These birds, which also nest in Bulgaria, pass over Israel as they make their way to Africa, sometimes as far south as the South African city of Cape Town.

The stork is connected to human habitats and in Europe it signifies the arrival of spring and symbolizes hope. Some 600,000 storks migrate through Israel’s skies twice a year, among them probably all of Bulgaria’s storks. Thus, the governments of Israel and Bulgaria chose the stork to appear on the joint-issue stamp as a symbol of peace and coexistence and as a sign that migrating birds know no borders.

Israeli scientists monitor the migrating birds, aided by motorized gliders, birdwatchers, radar and GPS transmitters tracked via satellite. Thus, the stamp features a stork transmitting to space. The sky is not the limit, but rather a habitat for storks migrating from Bulgaria to Africa via Israel.