Bulgaria Dragonflies 2026

 For the 2nd year I was lucky to co-lead a tour to Bulgaria with the main aim being the dragonflies and damselflies found in the Country.

We saw far too many to post all of them here, with 50 species seen we saw nearly all our main targets, as well as over 90 species of butterflies.

The diversity in Bulgaria really puts the UK to shame, with very little use of pesticides in the countryside the insects are allowed to live as they really should be allowed to everywhere in the World. 

Over the 9 days we were in Bulgaria, we headed south from Sofia, staying in 5 hotels in different areas which allowed us to see a vast range of dragonflies. We also one day visited Lake Kerkini in northern Greece to enable us to see even more species.

One of our rarest targets was the Ornate Bluet. This small blue damselfly was seen on our first day on the way to our first hotel. Last year at this site we only saw a couple. This year we did a little better with around 6, as well as a Winter Damselfly, a species we missed last year.

Ornate Bluet.

Winter Damselfly.

At a wonderful small lake we had huge numbers of dragonflies, all the time with a backdrop of listening to Nightingales, Golden Orioles, Turtle Doves and Great Reed Warblers. There was a large number too of emerging dragonflies. I really like the shot of a newly emerged Southern Darter resting next to its excuvia.

Southern Darter just emerged.

The Small Pincertail is another favourite, despite it being quite common. The male is very bizarre looking with its 'pincer like tail' that it uses to hold the female with during mating. Who would be a female pincertail?

Male Small Pincertail.

Female Small Pincertail.

Both Banded and Beautiful Demoiselle are quite different to the same species in Britain. The Banded has a much broader band, and the Beautiful is darker. There were many of both species, flying over the water like little jewels.

Beautiful Demoiselle.

One of our main targets was the very strange Odalisque. It is Europe's only member of the Oriental Gossamerwing family. In the same spot where we found this species last year, we found around 6 this year including a pair in tandem that would have been resting during egg laying. This was the first female Odalisque I have seen.

Pair of Odalisque in tandem.

Several Dainty Bluets were seen during the trip. This one was actually by the roadside after we had stopped to see a tortoise that was crossing the road. Nature was everywhere we looked.

Male Dainty Bluet.

Mating pair of Dainty Bluet.

The mating pair of Dainty Bluets were on the side of a near dried up dew pond. Also in the foliage around the pond were several Robust Spreadwing (Scarce Emerald Damselfly), some Small Bluetail which included several 'orange' immature females and a Migrant Spreadwing.

Immature female Small Bluetail. (Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly).

Migrant Spreadwing. (Southern Emerald Damselfly).

On another lake we came across some Lesser Emperor dragonflies that kept hovering nearby. I have always had mixed success at photographing dragonflies in flight, but these dragonflies gave me several attempts, and I feel that I got my best ever shot of one. Maybe even one of my best photos.

Lesser Emperor.

Our last stop one day was at a fuel station. The van was fed with fuel, and we took advantage of the ice-creams sold in the shop. We also had a target here of both Turkish and Blue-eyed Goldenring dragonflies. However, we certainly wasn't expecting it to be very easy. We were sitting round a picnic bench munching the ice-creams when someone spotted a Blue-eyed Goldenring land on a plant just feet away from us. The dragonfly had caught a spider and was eating it. Not an easy excercise taking photos of a dragonfly with one hand holding the camera and the other hand holding an ice-cream!!

It looks as though the dragonfly flew into the spider's web to catch the spider, and the some of the web stuck to the dragonfly's wings.

Blue-eyed Goldenring.

Last year I only saw a single Dark Spreadwing, and the photo I took was not really worth keeping, so I was quite pleased when I spotted this one.

Dark Spreadwing.

The Spearhead Bluet, known as the Northern Damselfly in the UK, which is only found in Scotland in the UK, is found in high mountain lakes in Bulgaria.

Spearhead Bluet. (Northern Damselfly).

On our day in Greece we came across another of our main targets. The Bladetail. Last year I did get some nice shots of this large dragonfly, but this year the glimpses were a bit brief, so our clients got priority with their cameras. We also found on the edge of Lake Kerkini some beautiful Violet Dropwing. It's difficult to give these dragonflies the justice they deserve as they are small and rarely rest within easy reach.

Violet Dropwing.

The Black Pennant is another tricky species. These are even smaller and are extremely active over the water. I have only seen one of these at rest before!! Hence it was only flight shots that I managed.

Black Pennant in flight.

Black Pennant egg laying in tandem.

We saw Red-veined Darters at several sites, although I only took a few images in the final couple of days. The female below was at the same lake as the Black Pennant, and was hunting a few feet back from the water.

Female Red-veined Darter.

This male however, was hunting from above the water. It was pretty hot on this particular day, and he was pointing his tail straight up to avoid overheating.

Male Red-veined Darter.

The images here are a small selection of what we saw during this brilliant 9 day tour. My next post will concentrate on the butterflies that we saw.