This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
We are back from our ten-day family vacation to Berlin and Prague and it was awesome. But this is a bird blog so I will stick to the birds here and simply share five things that I learned while birding in Germany or, to be more exact, while birding in Berlin. Mandarin Ducks are countable in Germany. Nothing, that’s what!
I feel that like most bird families (with the obvious exception of pheasants), buntings are somewhat underrated. The Little Bunting – as the name suggests – is probably the cutest of the family. I am particularly fond of Tristam`s Bunting – maybe the smartest-looking of the family. In other words, they are my kind of birds.
T he European Green Woodpecker (Visselhoevede, Germany) is closely related to the Grey-headed Woodpecker, but less demanding in terms of its habitat ( source ). The pink lipstick shape on the face of the bird counterintuitively indicates that this is a male. Kind of like a diesel version.
The best test of that proposition, of course, is to repeat it to any one of the hundreds of thousands of birders who have, say, a family. When he isn’t traveling the world in search of birds, art, and excitement, Rick Wright lives in northern New Jersey with his family, Alison Beringer and Avril Huang, and their black lab puppy, Quetzal.
One of the most interesting aspects of watching birds in Africa is to see different members of bird families that I already know from China. An information for those Indian readers of the blog who only know “Kingfisher” as a brand of beer: It is also a bird family. Different bird families, I know.
Germany, like most of Europe and very much unlike North America, is home to only one species of squirrel. As someone already pointed out on the blog that is the sole reason you switch on to the Internet in the morning, the Eurasian Red Squirrel is more arboreal and much more agile than the vast majority of its North American family members.
The world is still turning, the blog didn’t crash, no anonymous threats against my family on social media … I guess my small series on gulls may continue with part 2 of 3, which will focus on the Herring Gull ‘s second side-kick: Caspian Gull Larus cachinnans. Why does “steppe” win over “Caspian”?
A happy family of Mute Swans at Waghäusel in south-western Germany, post-trading era. This was done because white babies are so much cuter, but also because skins of baby Mute Swans were once traded, and white skins ensured more revenue. So much for the blessings of beauty. Now, enjoy the pictures.
The Edwards’s Pheasant is a rather smart blue-black member of the pheasant family and it may be on the edge of extinction. Leading scientists, conservationists and aviculturalists from Europe and South-east Asia met at Walsrode in Germany recently to formulate a rescue plan.
Looks quite different from the Eurasian Jay I have seen in Germany, which I found is par for the course for this bird – it apparently has 8 races and 33 subspecies. There, a Maroon Oriole was hiding in the bamboo. And Verditer Flycatchers were making their sorties from the trees in the temple.
Either that or having family friends in Germany. First hand birder knowledge of Germany, and in English! I decided then and there that I needed to bird Germany in a way that would make a birding Kraut cry with jealousy. Our plane touched down in Dusseldorf on June 14 where our friend picked us up. They are just too cool.
On the way up, a large family of Willow T**s… Source The last segment of our hiking trip (and correspondingly the last post of this mini-series) took us to the Soierngruppe, a relatively free-standing group of mountains forming a circular barrier arround two small picturesque lakes.
August – Germany and More Local Birding. We had a wonderful family vacation in Germany and the Czech Republic during which I managed to do a bit of birding. My contributions included Killdeer , Barred Warbler , and Song Thrush. fledgling Song Thrush about to be fed. Pied-billed Grebe. Oh, and there were mammals too.
To us on the traditional side of the Atlantic, they’ll always belong to the family Iznogoudae , the birds who want to become warblers instead of the warblers. Birders in the Americas may not be aware of it, but from the higher ground of a European perspective the American “warblers” are intensely overrated.
I experienced a perfect illustration of this many years ago when I was traveling in New Zealand with my family. My family still regularly reminds me of that sighting when I get excited about birds. Funny how sometimes you search for birds for ages and when you’re in the right area, or by chance, they are almost too easy to see.
A Carolina Parakeet mounted in a museum in Germany Fritz Geller-Grimm. Well-represented exotic families include starlings, ducks and doves and there are also many more individual species that now thrive here. Dozens of other introduced bird species, largely escapees from pet owners, now call Miami home.
I grew up in a small town in Northern Germany. I was vaguely curious about the family name mousebird. The HBW describes the species as “striking”, which is well deserved. Another bird one could easily see to be turned into a (slightly evil) cartoon character. A pity I cannot draw.
And these weren’t just any old foundlings either, but some of the oddest members of the beer family, lurking in the dark, dusty corners of ancient, regional brewing traditions – often delicious but hopelessly antiquated holdouts against Progress.
White Wagtail Motacilla alba During our family vacation we stayed at our friends’ house in Kreuzberg, the neighborhood just north of Templehof, which means a ten-minute walk would get me to some decent habitat in which to look for birds. It was one of the busiest airports in the 1930s, is home to a building 1.2
Here goes: Paradise Flycatchers are a genus in the broader (and rather large) family of Monarchidae. Of course, for countries with mostly moderate climates such as the US, China, Japan, or Germany, it is always easier to claim that the winter range is the problem (i.e., not their own).
He continues with images found in illuminated manuscripts such as Catherine of Cleves’s Book of Hours and Frederick II of Germany’s On the Art of Hunting With Birds. ’ Ironically, this is from Birds of Australia , which scholars and art historians suspect was more Elizabeth’s work than John’s.*.
Changing tastes in beer, now leaning towards more modern flavors imported from Britain and Germany – as well as the privations of two world wars – only seemed to seal the fate of saison. In the postwar years, the style was hanging on as an arcane regional specialty, brewed by an ever-shrinking number of small producers.
My childhood in the 1970s and 1980s was of course shaped by family, friends, playmobil ( very popular in Germany back then), and school but also to a certain extend by the Cold War. As a kid I still understood little of world politics, but I understood very well that all the countries behind the Iron Curtain were off-limits to me.
Though hops are used by brewers all over the world, traditional production is mostly restricted to a “hop belt” around the 48 th parallel north, a circle of latitude that runs through the famed hop regions of Germany and the Pacific Northwest of the United States.
Slaughter Lake does not sound like it would be a nice place to visit but we three Americans, my small family, were blissfully unaware of what Schlachtensee translates to before our expedition there.
Aside from its use in country winemaking, where strawberry wine is a beloved and venerable product of the rustic English tradition, this luscious, rubescent teardrop of the rose family is rarely granted the chance to preserve its delicate and rapidly fading ripeness in a life eternal granted by alcohol.
Kaiser works in Germany. It’s vital for managers to understand and accept that their team’s motivation and engagement is impacted by things happening outside of work, and to support them as holistic individuals with families, fears, ambitions and other commitments.”. The struggle to replace personal contact.
Next, band names referring to individual birds or bird families. A Eurasian Wren (Visselhoevede, Germany). Common Crane , Schneverdingen, Germany. The Bowerbirds are an American independent-folk band as well as an Australian bird family. The bird family, however, is not. Or look at what I just created below.
But I have been sick with different kinds and forms of cold since the beginning of December with no interruption, and so has my entire family. That is very cold for the south of Germany. Okay, I meant to write an entertaining post. I honestly did.
Large Woodshrikes are neither members of the shrike family, nor large (MacKinnon: “smallish grey and white”), nor made of wood. If you ever happen to be in Germany and so bored out of your mind that you are reduced to solving crossword puzzles, knowing the German word “Sterz” may come in handy. 0 out of 3.
She lives part-time in Uruguay and is co-director of the Fiction Meets Science program at the University of Bremen, Germany, which seeks to bridge the “two cultures” of science and literature. Things get complicated – and then, completely out of hand — when Gabe’s new inamorata is introduced to his family.
When one thinks of ecotourism here and how it changed lives, it should be known that the locals were leaving the region, in 1960s to the USA, but in the last ten years, after the World Economic Crisis, mostly to Germany. Well-being of the birds here is intricately connected with well-being of the people.
But I do have rules about whether I can have said to have visited a country, ie does the country “count” which I have inherited from my family, particularly my Dad. I have caught a bus across Europe, but I can’t really claim to have “been” to Germany or Belgium.
The Common Moorhen still is in Germany what its name implies: common. Well, it is rather common and can even be scarce regionally, but overall it is not a difficult bird to find in Germany so long as a cunning birder frequents reedy wetlands. Beware of Crocodiles.
There are currently 10 species of Treecreepers that form the family Certhiidae, nine in the genus Certhia and an additional oddball in another genus, Salpornis. David Sibley (yeah, the one ) recently raised the question visiting birders (particularly from Germany, not so much from the UK – I am told!) I’ll explain.
In fact, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology , “The Golden Eagle is the most common official national animal in the world – it’s the emblem of Albania, Germany, Austria, Mexico, and Kazakhstan.” Crested Caracaras, though they often associate with vultures, are actually part of the falcon family.
I could immediately tell them it was an Egyptian Goose – an invasive species in Germany but not at Kruger. Retz’s Helmetshrike is one of the 8 helmetshrikes within the larger family of Vangidae – apparently, a family that evolved from a single Madagascar-based species.
Germany has been one of Europe’s strong economies, but things are changing for everyone. Claudia Hollm saw a TV show about a family who had to relinquish their dog because of economic hardship. It began with the saddest story, as great ideas often do.
The Black-crowned Night Heron is a member of the heron family. This bird used to be quite common in Germany, but now it is rare. Hopefully, seeing these birds and learning about them will also make you understand that it is important to protect them and nature in general. It is related to the Little Egret that also visits our compound.
It sheltered him, it haunted him, and it set his thoughts adrift, to the warmth of spring and the family he had. The problem is that Blackbirds are incredibly common in suburban and even urban areas of Germany. In suburban Germany, this will essentially mean a silent spring. The darkness was all around him. All were long gone.
Dan is an active member of BirdLife Cyprus and goes birding whenever his career and family allow. Germany had lost one of its most promising ornithological researchers, and one of its most active birders. While there he studied Molecular Biology, then met a Cypriot, got married, and ended up moving with her to Cyprus.
This research was actually done only about 10 km away from a place I once lived for a couple of years, in Radolfszell, Germany. Like this bird family b. If you want to signal to your environment that you a. Like bad jokes and c. Are a bit sexist, you might want to consider getting a T-Shirt that combines all these three messages.
In a funny twist of fate, it seems that 2014 will be much the same as 2012 and 2013 have been, with family trips to somewhere in France and business trips to Indonesia and Kazakhstan. Germany: extensive trips comparable to 2013. 550 miles) drive back to Heidelberg/ Germany where we arrive around 18:00. Statistics & Maps.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 30+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content