Sagres hosts from October 2 to 5 the 17th edition of the Birdwatching Festival, which this year features a program of 314 activities and is seeing initial demand higher than in 2024. According to André Pinheiro, from Almargem Association, one of the organizations responsible for the event, in the first week of registrations, the same number of registrations were recorded as in the entire festival last year. The event is promoted by the Municipality of Vila do Bispo, in partnership with Almargem Association and the Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds, having usually brought together about 1,300 participants at each edition.
Approximately 60% of participants are Portuguese, with visitors from all continents represented. The program includes about 120 paid activities, the rest being free of charge, and maintains birdwatching as the main focus, although it also covers proposals for observing amphibians, reptiles, plants, insects, butterflies and dolphins. Among the new features this year are night butterfly photography and a "sound safari", in addition to the strengthening of the offer in the areas of scientific bird ringing, arts and introduction to observation.
The featured species this edition is the razorbill, a seabird that can be observed in Portuguese waters mainly during autumn and winter. The choice of this species also reminds us of the challenges faced by seabirds, namely accidental capture in fishing gear. Sagres is considered the third most important bird migration corridor in Europe, after the Bosphorus Strait in Turkey and Gibraltar at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula.
