Norway Birding Tours
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The Kingdom of Norway (“Norway” hereafter) forms the north and western edges of the Scandinavian peninsula. Norway is a vast country of some 148,729 square miles (385,206 square kilometers), around the same size as the US state of Montana. It has a population of 5.43 million people and with a population density of just 5.5/square miles Norway is one of the least densely populated countries in Europe. Norway has a 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) border with Sweden to the east and borders Finland and Russia to the northeast, with the Skagerrak strait to Denmark at the southern tip of the country. Directly to the north is the Barents Sea which leads first to Svalbard and then to the Arctic and the North Pole. Norway’s capital, Oslo, is in southern Norway and has a population of 1.71 million people which makes up roughly 30% of the country’s population. Oslo is a modern European city and its small size makes it easy to explore. Visiting Oslo before or after your bird watching tour would round off a fantastic Norwegian experience.
Norway is a country with a varied history. It was established as a kingdom in 872 AD and has continued to exist ever since. Up until the 1400s Norway owned a lot of territory in the United Kingdom. Shetland and Orkney were the last areas of the UK to be held by Norway with the islands finally being given up in 1468. Between 1537 and 1814 Norway became part of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway and from 1814 to 1905 was part of a personal union with the Kingdom of Sweden. In modern times Norway remained neutral during the First World War and Second World War, until April 1940, when it was invaded and occupied by Germany until the end of the Second World War. Norway’s population is made up of 86.2% Norwegians and 13.8% non-Norwegians with the Sami people having indigenous status. The non-Norwegian population is made up of Jewish, Traveler, Forest Finn, Romani and Kven peoples.