The Birdman Of Belarus

This is Uladzimer Ivanouski, a Belarusian ornithologist who was born in Daghestan but moved to Belarus in 1972 after falling in love with the nature of its Vitsebsk region.

For more than four decades the 73-year-old has dedicated his life to the study of predatory birds, and risked his life scaling flimsy trees to build nests for them.

Ivanouski builds a nest with wire and branches atop a tree in the Belarusian wilderness. The former software engineer has built nearly 700 such nests, which he says are necessary since many birds of prey in Belarus lose their homes to logging.

A female osprey sits on a tree branch. Ivanouski says around 50 percent of the nests he builds are occupied.

Ivanouski says he chooses locations for nests by walking around, looking at the treetops, and asking himself, "If I were an eagle, where would I nest?"

The intrepid ornithologist uses spikes attached to his boots to scale trees. Although he has fallen in the past, Ivanouski says the most dangerous moment of his treetop career was when he was attacked by a nesting owl, which left him bloodied and badly cut. He was later admitted to the hospital with an infection probably passed on from rodents the owl had eaten.

Ivanouski checks on the nest of a spotted eagle. He told a Belarusian website he admired eagles because they are "powerful, proud, and free; how can you not love them?"

Ivanouski once came face-to-face with a bear while on a dayslong expedition. The bear rose onto its hind legs just a few meters away and sniffed at the air cautiously before walking away.

Ivanouski climbs a tree to see a nest of osprey chicks while monitoring various nests of birds of prey in a marsh near the northwestern village of Kazyany.

Ivanouski walks through the Belarusian wilderness. The nature-lover admits he is sometimes afraid being alone in the territory of wolves and bears but says: "I always remember the joke: 'There is no beast worse than a man.'"