INTRODUCTION
This book documents all available data on birds occurring within the borders of the Republic of Armenia. The data are provided as a foundation and a source of encouragement for current and future ornithological study in Armenia. Detailed information about the species and subspecies of Armenian birds has special interest for the international scientific community because of the paucity of collective knowledge and the limited number of English publications from this part of the world. The baseline information in this book, and the bird study it attempts to promote, are expected to be a fundamental resource for the establishment of an effective conservation ethic throughout Armenian society, as well as a valuable tool for measuring and protecting the overall environment of the Republic, especially its irreplaceable natural resources.

This work complements the enclosed foldout Reference Map for the Birds of Armenia Project and A Field Guide to Birds of Armenia (Adamian and Klem 1997). Each publication contains unique information that warrants their use as independent works. Collectively they are the most accurate, current, and comprehensive literature on the birds of Armenia.

Like the Field Guide, the Handbook is written for anyone having a general interest in birds, and more specifically, for those having a special interest in the birds that occur within the borders of Armenia. It will be of most value to academic scholars at museums and institutions of higher education, investigators and policy-making officials within the government of the Republic of Armenia, and private national and international conservation and environmental groups whose mission it is to monitor and aid in the protection of birds and other natural resources.

The government of Armenia has an obligation, both to its citizens and all others worldwide, to further learn about and protect its bird life, the impressive habitats and preserves where these birds live, and the combined and essential natural resources upon which all life depends. The content of this book is an essential reference that can form the basis of a national program to effectively protect, maintain, and to the extent possible, restore the nation's bird life. It also is hoped that the information contained herein will justify and promote additional legislative action to ensure viable bird populations that in turn will ensure the most optimal environment for both birds and people in Armenia. By enacting additional legislative protection for birds, lawmakers will be preserving one of the nation's richest and most visible cultural and natural resources.

Complementing the Field Guide, this work also identifies species of special concern within Armenia; that is, those currently classified as Endangered, Threatened, Undetermined, or Extirpated. Whereas the Field Guide attractively illustrates and labels these special birds, the information in this Handbook further elaborates the rationale for selecting species of special concern, and supersedes comparable information on birds in the Red Data Book of Armenian SSR (Movsesian and Ayrumian 1987).

The contents of this book were gathered from published and unpublished literature, museum records, and extensive fieldwork between 1992 and 1995; anyone having knowledge about any birds within the borders of Armenia was requested to offer his or her findings for inclusion and acknowledgment. Information after 1995 has been included only for species of special concern and a few others for which we had little data. They include measurements for a Merlin killed colliding with a powerline in 1996, a Pine Bunting classified as Casual and sighted in 1996, the 1997 nesting records of the Endangered Black Stork, two separate sightings of the Endangered Little Bustard in 1997, the 1998 observation that suggests breeding of White-winged Redstart currently classified as Casual, and the sighting of the formerly Extirpated White-winged Scoter in 1998.

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© 1997, 1999 BOA Project