I'm an American in Budapest looking for birds while trying to do my job for 4 months and not neglect my wife and kids too much. We arrived in Budapest on 16 August 2011, planning to stay into December. I had to get to the airport a few times in the first week, and I tallied COLLARED DOVE, NORTHERN WHEATEAR, WESTERN MARSH HARRIER, and KESTREL. In the city itself, I spent time with our boys at various local parks and playgrounds. A late summer birder in Pest will easily find BLACK-HEADED and YELLOW-LEGGED GULLS, as well as GREAT CORMORANT, on the river. The pond in Varosliget park holds COOTS, MALLARDS, and the occasional LITTLE GREBE. Varosliget and neighboring parks turned up the following on a regular basis: GREAT TIT, EURASIAN BLACKBIRD, WOOD PIGEON, MAGPIE, HOODED CROW, BLACK REDSTART, and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. Other birds that have appeared so far are GREY HERON, SPARROWHAWK, COMMON SWIFT, SPOTTED FLYCATCHER, PIED FLYCATCHER, WOOD WARBLER, WILLOW WARBLER, CHIFFCHAFF, BLUE TIT, LONG-TAILED TIT, HOUSE MARTIN, BARN SWALLOW, BANK SWALLOW, JACKDAW, MISTLETHRUSH, SONG THRUSH, and ROBIN. My first foray outside of the city came with the help of a local birder, Ungi Balazs, who answered my email to birding.hu about finding hoopoes and bee-eaters. He suggested that I take a bus to Tahitotfalu on Szentendre island north of the city. I went on August 20th, St. Istvan's day, a huge national holiday in Hungary, but fortunately the trains and buses were running regularly (this had been the subject of great debate among our Hungarian friends). I got off at Hosok Ter in the small town, and the heroes in the square were the many young men who died in World War I, commemorated by a monument similar to some of our Civil War monuments--a soldier in period military garb looking out over the square. I started walking north, having only a vague idea of where I should be heading. Swallows were abundant, along with TREE SPARROWS and HOUSE SPARROWS. LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER and GREEN WOODPECKER both put in an appearance. My first life bird was a HONEY BUZZARD moving around in the trees about 2 KM north of the monument, at a horse farm. Also present were COMMON BUZZARDS and a bird that I called a BLACK KITE, although Balazs suggested that it was probably a Harrier in an email exchange later. Other than the holiday traffic whizzing by me (who were all of these people, and where were they going on a hot and sunny holiday?), it was a nice walk though open company. But it got better. Several RED-BACKED SHRIKES were present, WHINCHATS and STONECHATS also were in the fields, and best of all about 10 BEE-EATERS called and hawked insects. I also added PENDULINE TIT, RAVEN, GREENFINCH, GOLDFINCH, SERIN, and STARLING. The next Saturday, 27 August, Balazs took me out to Apaj and Bugyi with two of his old birding pals, Horvath Gabor and Berenyi Zsombor. Gabor met us at a spot along the Danube where we watched many gulls on a sandbar with a few COMMON SANDPIPERS and a KINGFISHER, while we heard Chiffchaffs, Jays, and SHORT-TOED CREEPERS. We had an amazing day. Our first stop at a gravel pit in Bugyi turned up my first CRESTED LARKS, which Balazs reported are found easily at hipermarts, as well as CURLEWS, WHITE WAGTAIL, and LAPWINGS everywhere. Gabor called SPOTTED REDSHANKS as a flock of 9 flew over. GREAT-CRESTED GREBES were on the pond with Little Grebes too. As we drove to the next stop, we discussed various birds that might hsave already left, including WHITE STORK. Of course, at the next stop, Gabor set up his scope and called to me, "look here." White Stork, of course, in the field, one of three there. The birds of prey were amazing, with Common Buzzards, Marsh Harriers, and Kestrels everywhere. Soon a SAKER FALCON put in an incredible appearance, including a sequence in which we watched a HOBBY (first of about 6 on the day) catch a small bird then get chased by a Saker, which eventually got the prey, only to have the Hobby pursue in turn. There were probably three Sakers in the field, but things got better--Gabor called out "eagle!" SHORT-TOED EAGLE! Followed soon by WHITE-TAILED EAGLE (2 more later in the day). Soon he called out YELLOW WAGTAIL, and while we were looking for it a small brown blur dropped into a nearby bush. Gabor got the scope on it, and it turned out to be a WRYNECK! I was getting dizzy. We moved down the road as Zsombor told me about the Hungarian MME (Audubon for here, basically) efforts to restore Great Bustards. At our next two stops we came up with about 25 GREAT BUSTARDS patrolling the fields and added SKYLARK and MONTAGU'S HARRIER, as well as some ROOKS and Bee-eaters. The various fields also had LITTLE EGRETS and GREAT EGRETS as well as Grey Herons. We then headed to Apaj and a small forest near the fish ponds. Just as we were turning in, we noticed a medium-sized bird flying across the field, and Gabor called out "HOOPOE!" It then popped out of the treeline and flew across the field so that its fieldmarks were obvious. Balazs observed that I was very lucky. It helps to have expert local help! The woods then turned out to very productive, with 2-3 GOLDEN ORIOLES still putting on a show, SPOTTED and PIED FLYCATCHERS, with a number of warblers around--WOOD, GARDEN, ICTERINE, WILLOW, LESSER WHITETHROAT, and BLACKCAP. The fish ponds added MUTE SWAN to our list. We made one more stop at a fish pond somewhere in Apaj. We added several good birds, including PURPLE HERON, BLACK STORK, GREYLAG, TURTLE DOVE, SNIPE, WOOD SANDPIPER, GREEN SANDPIPER, PHEASANT, and we picked up NIGHT HERONS on our way there. All told, we had 80 species for the day, and I added 12 to my life list.