The photos on this page were taken by my father, Winfried Scharlau, who passed away in 2020 and who was an enthusiastic bird watcher and spent a lot of time observing, studying and photographing birds. He was also a great friend of Greece, which he knew from countless trips. For many years, my father studied the breeding birds of numerous islands in the Aegean Sea. In 1990, we surveyed the breeding birds of the island of Naxos together. Since then, the avifauna of the island has changed slightly; some new species have settled the island, while others have become rarer or have disappeared.
On this page, in memory of my father and in recognition of his contribution to the knowledge of the bird life of Naxos, you will find the best and most characteristic of his photos of the various bird species that breed on Naxos (however, only a few of the pictures were taken on Naxos itself). Included are species that nest only on nearby islets, but that can be seen on Naxos.
My father did not have any photos of four species that breed on Naxos, so these are missing from the gallery: Lanner falcon, barn owl, nightjar and Eastern orphean warbler. With the exception of the Lanner falcon, which probably does not occur regularly (and which I have never seen), I have included ‘replacement photos’ for these species so as not to omit them entirely.
