The Jerusalem Bird Observatory is an urban bird observatory

Bird observatory

A bird observatory is a centre for the study of bird migration and bird populations. They are usually focused on local birds, but may also include interest in far flung areas. Most bird observatories are small operations with a limited staff, many volunteers and a not-for-profit educational status...

 in Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, sited on a 5000 m² plot in central Jerusalem between the Knesset

Knesset

The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...

 and the Supreme Court

Supreme Court of Israel

The Supreme Court is at the head of the court system and highest judicial instance in Israel. The Supreme Court sits in Jerusalem.The area of its jurisdiction is all of Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. A ruling of the Supreme Court is binding upon every court, other than the Supreme...

. It has a strategic location on the bird migration

Bird migration

Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...

 route between Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 and Eurasia

Eurasia

Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...

 along the Great Rift Valley

Great Rift Valley

The Great Rift Valley is a name given in the late 19th century by British explorer John Walter Gregory to the continuous geographic trench, approximately in length, that runs from northern Syria in Southwest Asia to central Mozambique in South East Africa...

. Every spring and fall more than 500 million bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s migrate through Israel. Two-thirds of the species seen in Jerusalem are migratory.

Established in 1994 by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel

Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel , or SPNI, is an Israeli non-profit environmental organization working to preserve plants, animals, and natural environments that represent bio-diversity, by protecting the lands and waters needed for their survival, and is Israel's oldest and...

, the observatory serves as the national bird banding

Bird ringing

Bird ringing or bird banding is a technique used in the study of wild birds, by attaching a small, individually numbered, metal or plastic tag to their legs or wings, so that various aspects of the bird's life can be studied by the ability to re-find the same individual later...

 center. It was founded, and is directed, by nature artist Amir Balaban and ornithologist Gidon Perleman. Two hundred birds are banded every day by trained volunteers during the spring and fall migrations.

Rare birds

• Eyebrowed Thrush
  Eyebrowed Thrush
  The Eyebrowed Thrush, Turdus obscurus, is a member of the thrush family Turdidae.It breeds in dense coniferous forest and taiga eastwards from Siberia. It is strongly migratory, wintering south to southeast Asia and Indonesia. It is a rare vagrant to western Europe.It nests in trees, laying 4-6...
  
   (Turdus obscurus), sighted at the observatory in 2007

• Taiga Flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis), banded at the observatory on 29 April 2007