12 rare and protected species of birds have been detected in the nature reserve – the white stork, the white-backed woodpecker, the red-backed shrike, the crane, the goldeneye, the corn crake, the European honey buzzard, the goosander, the black woodpecker, the hazel grouse, the short-eared owl and the three-toed woodpecker. All 12 species of birds are protected in the scale of Europe and, with the exception of the hazel grouse and the goldeneye, have been taken on the list of specially protected species in Latvia. In the places where forest stands border on fields, meadows, bigger glades or other open terrains, the characteristic species are the garden warbler, the yellowhammer, the tree pipit, the Eurasian skylark, the whinchat, the hooded crow, the common starling, the common cuckoo and others. In the forests of the reserve, there are the bird species characteristic for the boreal forest type. The most common bird species are the common chaffinch, the willow warbler, the common chiffchaff, the Eurasian blackcap, the common blackbird, the song thrush, the Eurasian wren, the European robin, the great tit, the common treecreeper, the goldcrest, the great spotted woodpecker, the black woodpecker, the common wood pigeon, the Eurasian jay, the spotted nutcracker, the common raven. The species of woodpeckers nesting in the reserve – the white-backed woodpecker, the black woodpecker and the three-toed woodpecker – are indicative of the age and ingenuousness of separate plots of forests, as woodpeckers inhabit middle-aged and old deciduous trees as well as mixed deciduous forests with dead deciduous trees, their stumps, and snags at different stages of decaying.
