Agamon HaHula, Bird sanctuary and wetland park in Hula Valley, Israel
Agamon HaHula is a bird sanctuary and wetland reserve in the Hula Valley where walking paths cross through natural habitats. The site includes several viewing areas and access points arranged for observing the resident and visiting bird populations.
The area was created after the original lake was drained in the 1950s, which transformed the local ecosystem dramatically. Decades later, water was restored to the valley and the site was developed as a protected bird sanctuary.
The name Agamon HaHula is a diminutive of Hula Lake, the lake drained in the 1950s. Since 2001 the Hula Birding Center, run by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel with KKL-JNF, has ringed birds and led public tours here. Each winter staff feed tens of thousands of gray cranes to keep them off nearby farmland.
The site can be explored on foot or by renting bicycles, golf carts, and safari wagons for getting around the paths. Early morning and late afternoon visits tend to offer better conditions for bird watching and photography.
In February 2009 the British magazine BBC Wildlife named Agamon HaHula one of the world's ten most important wildlife observation sites. Tens of thousands of cranes winter here and are fed in an organized program; at the end of 2021 an avian flu outbreak among them spread to poultry farms across northern Israel, prompting calls to reconsider the feeding.
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