The 14th İkizdere Black Grouse Festival was organized in the İkizdere district of Rize. Held with the collaboration of the İkizdere District Governorship and the İkizdere Municipality, the festival took place at the Büyük Plateau, which is at an altitude of 2,300 meter in Sivrikaya village.

Those who attended the festival started to observe endangered black grouse, which live only in the Eastern Black Sea in Turkey and are seen with binoculars and telescopes at 4 a.m.

Some of the participants, including the Provincial Director of Culture and Tourism İsmail Hocaoğlu and the İkizdere Mayor Hasan Kösoğlu, saw the black grouse for only 30 seconds after waiting for two hours.

Nature lovers later toured the plateau for a photo trip within the context of the festival.

İsmail Hocaoğlu told that it is a chance to see the endemic black grouse with the naked eye. "Even seeing them with binoculars or in a photo is important. It is a great feeling that makes people rejoice," he said.

Hocaoğlu stated that nature lovers took photos of this bird, which does not go down below the altitude of 2,000 meters. Referring to this as a touristic move, he implied the contribution of the festival to the tourism of Rize.