The Cranes of Hortobágyi

October 27^th, 2026 

While researching this trip while I was still in Canada (not that I did much of it), one thing that caught my eye was the annual migration of 100,000-150,000 cranes.  That’s something I’d love to see so I made specific plans to head to the east side of Hungary.

 

The common crane has three main “flyways & routes” and the one that stops in Hungary is the “Baltic-Hungarian Flyway” or “Southeast Route”.  They spend their summer in Finland and the Baltic states and pass through eastern Hungary on the way to their winter destination of northern Serbia, Tunisia or Italy.

The common crane (I stole the photo from online).

The closest metropolis to the Hortobágyi National Park, where the cranes stop on their journey, is Debrecen, the second largest city of Hungary, with a population around 200,000.  I had to change trains in the small town of Füzesabony and the whole trip took about 3½ hours.  My accommodation was only a 15-minute walk from the train station, but the first part of it was along a busy road, under an overpass with no sidewalk…slightly dodgy.

The view of the plains of Hungary from the train.

Getting closer to Hortobágyi Park, which the train will pass through on its way to Debrecen.

Some old locomotive at a train station of a small town near Debrecen.

Arriving in Debrecen.

Inside the train station.

The utilitarian looking Debrecen train station.

My place was in a four-storey, slightly decrepit building that was definitely from Hungary’s socialist years.  Once again, it was a bit of “escape room” type antics to access my room.  Enter a code here, collect some keys there, use the blue key for this door, the orange one for that door, and finally the silver one to get into my room.  The room was on the 4^th floor and there was an ancient looking elevator, but I was suspicious if it was working, and if it was, whether it was safe.  I opted to climb up the spiraling staircase that wound around the elevator, complete with plaster peeling off the walls.  Hmm…what kind of place did I pick on Booking.com?!?

The outside of my building.

Yup, it needs a few touch-ups.

Turns out it, the room was fine.  The apartment was modern, spacious and even had a little kitchenette.  The only odd thing, which I was aware of when I booked the place, was that the double bed was raised up like a bunk bed with a couch and side table underneath it.  This did maximize the space for sure.

My strange bed.

The dining room table was normal though...not that I used it.

Nor did I use the little patio.

After settling in, I decided to make use of the last few hours of sunlight in the afternoon and walked about 20-25 minutes to the town centre.  I didn’t have any specific goals apart from just to check out the city, which didn’t take long.

Lots of churches in this country seem to be yellow.

Well, except this one.

I do like some of the architecture in Hungary, well, in Europe in general.

What did I say about the yellow?!?  This the Reformed Great Church of Debrecen...with a photobombing young teenage couple flirting with each other...so much for being reformed. 

Yet another statue of Lajos Kossuth.

A fancy schmancy McDonalds.

 Yes, I think those poles are meant to be leaning sideways.

A statue of Statue of King Saint Stephen who was the last grand prince of the Hungarians between 997 and 1000 or 1001, and the first king of Hungary from 1000 or 1001 until his death in 1038.

Okay, what next?  Well, I might as well find a nice little pub to have a drink or two and write some of my blog, which is my only real job while I travel and it does take a fair amount of my time, but I think it’s worth it.  I found a place called the “Stay Beer Bar”.  The sign said it opened at 4 pm, and it was only 4:05.  A blonde woman in her mid to late twenties was just heading back inside so I asked if the place was open.  It was, and I was her first customer.

They had some nice craft beers, so I tried what was labelled on a sign as a “Cold IPA” and for the first time since I’ve been in Eastern Europe, I had a beer cold enough for my liking!  I ended up staying there for a few hours as the atmosphere and the libations were great.

More clientele did show up...

I got a kick out of the urinals...now that's one way to recycle some kegs!

The following day, I was to show up at the Hortobágyi Tourist Information Centre at 2 pm.  During the previous few weeks, I had tried to find out information from the website for the “Crane Tour”, but it was archaic, confusing and in Hungarian.  I finally found a form to fill out but I questioned whether it actually signed me up or not as no payment was required. For the tour, you had to have your own car, so I had been in contact with a rental company called ML Rent.  I hadn’t planned on renting a car on this trip, so I didn’t buy an International Driver’s Licence, but thankfully they didn’t need one.

 

I decided to walk to the rental company’s office, which was a good 3-4 km, but I had time and wanted the exercise.  Google Maps definitely took me on an interesting route as I ended up crossing about eight train tracks on a curvy, paved road, but it didn’t seem right.  There were a bunch of train workers in high-vis vests, and they didn’t say anything, so I assumed it was okay.

This seems a bit dodgy...

When I got to the other side, there was no clear way to go as a 15-foot grassy berm was right in front of me.  To the right looked like someone’s driveway to their home, so I turned left, but that looked like a dead-end.  There were a couple of men in working clothes sitting on the steps of some industrial building and they asked me something in Hungarian…I assume “Can we help you?”  I showed them my phone, shrugged my shoulders and stated, “Huh, Google Maps.”  The younger guy spoke some English, looked at my phone and then showed it to the older man.  They talked back and forth in Hungarian and then I received the translated directions that the older guy told the younger guy of where to go.  “Cusonom!” I told them (thank you) and headed on my way. 

Then I heard the older guy say something, I looked back, and they redirected me down a flight of stairs.  Then I saw the pedestrian tunnel that I was probably supposed to have taken instead of walking over the tracks.  Travelling…it’s all about the journey, not the destination!

That's the way I should have come.

It was an interesting route for sure...but I didn't mind this bit.

At the rental car company, the guy asked me for a 50,000 Florint deposit, which they had told me about in an email.  The part that they omitted to say, was that it had to be in cash!  I assumed that a credit card would have sufficed.  I didn’t have that kind of Hungarian cash with me, but luckily, he took $300 USD which I happened to have in my money belt in my backpack.  Whew.

 

Arriving at the tourist information centre in Hortobágyi, about 30 kilometres to the west of Debrecen, I paid for my ticket and then had 20 minutes to check out the exhibit about cranes before there was a half hour movie.

Part of the exhibition.

Incoming!

Unfortunately, the movie was in Hungarian (which I don’t have a problem with as we are in Hungary), but there were no subtitles, so I didn’t learn a lot from the film.  Afterwards, there was a lot of explanation from two guides in Hungarian with the crowd of 50-60 people.  Of course, I had no idea what was going on.  I had met one of the guides earlier, and he did speak some English so as the crowd dispersed, I went up to ask him what the deal was.  There was another non-Hungarian speaking Czech guy who also wanted to find out what was going on.  Obviously, we bonded immediately.

 

His name was Dusan and he was on a weeklong holiday.  He lives in Ostrava which is on the east side of Czechia.  I later found out that he used to be a musician, as a hobby, but now he was into photography, specifically of wildlife.  I asked him which was more expensive, but he claimed that they were equally costly.

A nice Lego mosaic of some cranes in the movie room.

The movie was about to start.

About half of the tourists headed off in a convoy with the older guide, and Dusan and I decided to join the second group as we knew that the younger guide, Richard, did speak some English.  We drove about 10 kilometres, back towards Debrecen, before turning off on a side road.  Everyone parked their cars on the side of a single lane road, and then we had to reshuffle them onto the other side of the road on Richard’s request, not that I followed the logic.

The first convoy heading out from the parking lot.

It was a ten-minute walk along a single land paved road then we detoured into what seemed to be someone’s farmyard and then along a muddy lane with a receded lake on the right and a channel of water about twenty feet wide.  There was another pond on the other side of a berm.  The lake on the right was where the crane action was going to happen.

Richard's car that led the convoy.

Starting our walk to the lake.

We crossed this bridge then walked towards the left on the other side of the channel of water.

The guide set up his tripod with a high-powered spotting scope and then he rambled on in Hungarian.  My Czech buddy, Dusan, was busy setting up his tripod and camera with a monster lens.  I did wish that I had at least some binoculars, but I was able to get the odd peak from the guide’s scope.

Here come some of our first contestants.

Everyone surveying the scene.

There were some cranes standing in the shallow water, but they must have been at least 500 meters away.  At first, I must admit that I thought this wasn’t going to live up to my expectations of what I had seen online.  However, it was a gorgeous, clear sky with the sun starting to set and Dusan told me that the previous evening he was at another location and flocks of birds kept arriving until it was pitch dark.  Cranes have much better eyes than we do for the low light of dusk.

Well, the wait was worth it.  Flocks of cranes, also known as a “siege” or “sedge” of cranes kept coming and coming.  At times, the V-formation of the birds looked to be about a kilometre in length.  When they would turn, it sometimes looked like a black smudge in the sky.  Incredible.

Catching the last bit of the sun.

Scanning the horizon.

On the lake behind us, some swans tried to quietly pass by, maybe knowing that they weren't the headliner of the show.

And it happened to be a full moon!  But yup, my phone did not capture it very well.  As it got darker, a small bat started flying around too...everyone was getting in on the show.

Unfortunately, my woefully old iPhone, with a single camera lens, really couldn’t do justice to the incredible act of nature we were witnessing.  I asked Dusan if he could email me some of the photos he captured with his amazing camera.  Hopefully he’ll follow through.

 

I was definitely glad that I made the effort to travel to Debrecen, rent a car, and witness one of Mother Nature’s fabulous shows!