Also called the "Birds paradise", the Danube Delta can be proud with its brooding species, including as well sedentary birds and migratory birds but with its non brooding species too, winter guests and just passing through during spring and autumn.
Birds are not only a component of the typical, attractive landscape of the Danube Delta, but they are also one of the main reasons the Delta is so famous in the entire world. The Danube Delta's ornithological species totals more than 300 species, 70 being non-European species.
According to recent research, it is estimated that 166 of 325 species are hatching birds: the ones that do not hatch are winter guests and passing through during spring and autumn.
According to their geographical origin, the birds belong to the following types: European, (singing birds as the reed nightingale, the bunting, the sea swallow, seagulls, the fisher eagle and the white eagle), Mediterranean (the heron, small cormorant, the gruidae, the pelican), Siberian (the singing swan, the plover, the ember goose, the half snipe, the crane), Mongolian (the golden eagle, the Danube falcon) and Chinese (the egret, the mute swan, the big cormorant). The migration takes place towards South-North during spring and North-South during autumn. This movement is guided by instinct being followed with regularity, only the weather is able to influence this migration planning. The well-established routes followed during migration, got their name after researchers and scientists as it follows: Pontic, Sarmatian, the Black Sea route, East-Elba and Carpathian route. 9 in 325 species of birds are endangered species. The protected birds are sorted in two groups, in accordance with the color of their plumage: white (the common and the Dalmatian pelican, the spoon bill, the great egret and the egret, the mute swan and the whistling swan) and polychromous (the black-winged stilt, the white shel duck, the ruddy shel duck, the white-tailed eagle). Soon will be protected other three species - the crane, the Danube hawk and the stone curlew. Among the bird species wintering winter in the Delta and especially in the Razim-Sinoe lacustrian complex we can mention the red-breasted goose (Branta ruficollis - more than 20,000 birds), ducks, white-fronted gooses, moor hens and swans ? a total amount of one million birds. The effort concerning the fauna protection, especially the birds on the Letea and Caraorman ridges, started many years ago as a consequence to the more and more obvious human intervention in the Danube Delta. The number and whole territory destined to become Delta reservations grew to five (three ornithological reservations and two forest parks), spreading over about 40,000 ha, in addition to a couple of nesting sites, with a lower security protection.
Following the development that took over the Danube Delta, between 1960-1989 (concerning the reed thickets, arable lands, the forests and the fish breeding) many imbalances have interposed, with a negative influence over the reservations. Since 1989, a new state of mind and new decisions that have been taken offered a new point of view over the valuable features stored in the Danube Delta. The Delta as well as the Razim-Sinoe lacustrian complex, have been both declared biosphere reservations. Defining the biosphere reservation, man is not at all excluded but totally accepted, so he can go on performing economic activities as long as his measures do not harm the preserved and protected features.