10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2014

Germany is underrated as a birding destination. Greater Rheas, a species the Germans call Nandu, are very popular in Germany and frequently kept in zoos as well as private enclosures. The following map (taken from the highly esteemed site ornitho.de ) shows all observations of Greater Rheas throughout Germany since 1999.

Germany 263

Germany 2000 South America Birds 263

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2012

Here in Germany, we don’t wish we had. Yes, Germany has parrots, or parakeets to be more precise. Unlike North America, Germany has never had naturally occurring psittacines that went extinct, and the one we have is a true and complete invasive alien introduction. Because we never have had.

Germany 255

Germany Netherlands Zoos Costa Rica 255

10,000 Birds

MAY 28, 2017

Black Woodpeckers are usually easy to find in Germany. At least one birder will now likely grab his war hammer and check flight availabilities from New York to Frankfurt as well as average prison sentences in Germany for first degree murder. Here in Germany, we have them. Yes, some birders may frown at this statement.

Germany 100

Germany Woodpeckers Luxembourg North America 100

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 20, 2020

For those still reading on after this introduction, this is about Barn Owls I have seen in Germany in summer 2018 and winter 2019 – rural Northern Germany, to be more specific. In December 2019, I found a roosting barn owl on my last day in Germany. More owl photos here.

Owls 214

Owls Barn Owls Germany 2018 214

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 14, 2024

Lake Constance (of the Bodensee in German) is a huge lake on the border of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The place is very popular among tourists of these and many other countries, with extensive tourist infrastructure in place in most towns around the lake.

Sparrows 246

Sparrows Switzerland Austria Ducks 246

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 26, 2019

Well, this post is more specific than that – it is about the birds of Fliederweg 7, 27374 Visselhövede, Germany. Finally, this being Germany, we also have birds that look (at least a little bit) like Hitler. Birds of a specific place with an unpronounceable name that you have never heard of? European Greenfinch. House Sparrow.

Germany 245

Germany Neglecting Blackbirds Sparrows 245

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2014

Whether the inspiration to this post came from Germany winning the U19 European football championship yesterday right on the heels of our (adult) team winning the world cup (Yes! Ospreys have shown a remarkable recovery in Germany. Four stars!!), or from Coreys small series on national birds is left for you to decide.

Eagles 182

Eagles Germany Breeding Hunting 182

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 19, 2024

Crested Myna (Shanghai, China) Black Crested Bulbul (Nonggang, China) Crested Barbet (Letaba, Bateleur, Kruger Park, South Africa) Crested Bunting (Nonggang, China) Crested Dove (somewhere in Australia) Crested Finchbill (Tengchong, China) Crested Flameback (Taman Negara, Malaysia) Crested Francolin (Ndumo, South Africa) Crested Goshawk (Shanghai, (..)

South Africa 245

South Africa China Germany Africa 245

10,000 Birds

JUNE 22, 2011

Prior to that trip to Kazakhstan the only other time I had seen Hooded Crows was in Germany in 2007, when my best looks at a Hooded Crow were along the shore of the Baltic Sea. My last encounter with a Hooded Crow was in May of 2009 in the Tien Shan Mountains of Kazakhstan.

New York 259

New York Kazakhstan New York City North America 259

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2011

A locally famous one, if you are birding in Germany’s North-East, is the outhouse of the bird ringing / banding station on a small island called the Greifswalder Oie (page sadly only in German, but it has some pictures of the place). Now, the “but&# : It wasn’t always like this in Germany. Where are the birds?

Germany 162

Germany Birds Iraq Breeding 162

10,000 Birds

JULY 30, 2021

Nope, definitely not one of those… The classification of beer styles can be a pretty thorny issue in its own right, and I suspect Helles requires some explanation to most casual drinkers outside of Germany. Helles is a pale German lager, particularly popular in Bavaria but also in neighboring Franconia and Baden-Württemberg.

Germany 264

Germany New York Bears Rights 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 22, 2012

Maybe the proposition isn’t that simple, but you can vote to allocate $40,000 from National Geographic Germany to Fundación ProAves to support conservation of the practically extinct Fuertes’s Parrot.

Parrots 214

Parrots Pandas Rhinos Germany 214

10,000 Birds

MAY 31, 2015

Germany is currently experiencing something for which the English have no nice expression. The specificities of languages … Anyway, so Germany this year is essentially filled with mice, like the one shown here, which – so far as I know – is a vole where you come from. You’re not a vole or a gerbil.

Fox 168

Fox Rodents Gophers Germany 168

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 15, 2015

And if months of overcast days are what climate change has in store for Germany, I’ll volunteer for the first manned Mars mission that doesn’t include a return ticket. Birds chickadees and tits finches Germany waterfowl weather winter' Still, this winter is pain. Final shapes of grey tally = 50!

Germany 197

Germany Feral Ducks Suffering 197

10,000 Birds

JULY 25, 2014

When I started birding in earnest during the 1980s in south-west Germany, no one talked about Egyptian Geese. During the early 1990s, rumours surrounding the occurrence of a few Egyptian Geese in far north-western Germany emerged, the result of an increasing and spreading Dutch feral population. The Netherlands were far away.

Germany 150

Germany Netherlands Geese Kenya 150

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2022

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.

Woodpeckers 264

Woodpeckers South Africa China Singapore 264

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2013

In Germany, it is a very polarizing species, as it is very common on the North Sea shore – where it breeds – but a scarce visitor to the rest of the country, making it a bird so fair and foul to a mixed group of birders as you’ll ever see. Birds Germany godwits shorebirds'

Germany 199

Germany Russia Iceland India 199

10,000 Birds

JUNE 25, 2020

Blue Tit (Visselhoevede, Germany, Jul 2018). Black-tailed Godwit (Nanhui, China, May 2020). Black-throated Tit (Tianmushan, China, Jun 2019). Hiking up a tree. Black-winged Stilt (Nanhui, China, May 2019). Almost abstract bird patterns. “You`re so juvenile!” ” Budgerigar (Ayers Rock, Australia, Dec 2016).

South Africa 257

South Africa 2018 China 2019 257

10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2011

Germany currently has a population of around 500 breeding pairs, which is a significant improvement over the 50 pairs left in the early 1970s. This bird, a migrant from further North or East in Germany, was the first Black Stork I saw around Heidelberg since moving here in the summer of 2008.

Germany 155

Germany Russia Asia China 155

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 18, 2016

In fact – and I am not making this up – I was very upset on my first visit to the Great Bustards in Germany when glancing with naked eyes over the meadows, I noticed a few large white pieces of plastic garbage that the wind had apparently blown into the nature reserve and I angrily thought that someone really should go remove them.

Germany 154

Germany Birds Europe 154

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2024

Jacob suggested the Wagbachniederung, a well-known wetland that is particularly popular amongst photographers for being one of the few locations in Germany where Purple Herons breed.

Squirrels 244

Squirrels South Africa Germany Ducks 244

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2024

As South Germany always has different birds on offer to the area around Bonn, I had to take my camera with me. I spent a weekend in Munich recently to visit my girlfriend and my brother. While I usually only take my binoculars on trips where birding is not really a part but I just want to make sure.

Germany 222

Germany Ducks Birds Woodpeckers 222

10,000 Birds

JUNE 1, 2023

Now, try to imagine Germany having Joseph Goebbels as a Chancellor around the year 1970, more than quarter of a century after WWII – unimaginable, isn’t it? Why should something so unimaginable in Germany be possible in Serbia? He started his political career as Slobodan Milosevic’s Minister of Propaganda. Protest indeed!

Protesting 233

Protesting Protesters Protest Germany 233

10,000 Birds

MAY 27, 2021

A wet Blackcap (Visselhoevede, Germany). So, here’s a collection of wet birds. A wet Grey-eyed Bulbul (Xishuangbanna, China). A wet African Pygmy Kingfisher (Mkuze, South Africa). A wet Daurian Redstart (Shennongjia, China). Wet Orange-bellied Leafbird s (Tengchong, China). A wet Moustached Laughingthrush (Tengchong, China).

South Africa 222

South Africa China Africa Penguins 222

10,000 Birds

JULY 15, 2012

Eurasian Wrens are very common in forests throughout Germany. They owe their awful name to the fact that the former holarctic ”Wren” or “Winter Wren” was recently split into several New World and one Old World form, producing the need to add a geographic reference to the new forms’ respective names.

Germany 244

Germany Europe Eggs Birds 244

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2013

We, the people of Germany, have had enough of this nonsense. Birds Germany magpies weather' This may come as a surprise and it is sure to rock the stocks, yet it is an inevitable consequence of recent developments and a logic step to those familiar with European affairs: The Germans are preparing to leave the European Union.

Algeria 153

Algeria Germany Mali 2013 153

10,000 Birds

MAY 18, 2024

While this bird is not uncommon in Germany, I have only seen this species once in the region around Bonn (which I should probably blame in part on the infrequency of my birding outings). Eurasian Wryneck A Red-backed Shrike was perched on pine at the edge of the heath.

Germany 238

Germany Birds Parrots Europe 238

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2013

Germany is not really within the species’ breeding range, and there is only one area where the herons have bred continuously and successfully since the 1970′s: Waghäusel, an area of former waste water ponds of a – now closed – nearby sugar plant. Birds Germany herons and egrets Waghäusel'

Germany 164

Germany Asia Europe Africa 164

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2014

Germany is blessed with a single species of crossbill, the Red Crossbill Loxia recurvirostra. It is pointless, and thus frustrating as each encounter might mean you’ve just missed out on an opportunity to record an amazing vagrant for Germany. Birds Germany Red Crossbill'

Germany 187

Germany Parrots Bats Europe 187

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2024

It was probably a great spotted woodpecker, which is very common in Germany. She was the one who figured out that the knocking noise came from a woodpecker trying to build a home in our facade. My dad attempted a daring maneuver to climb up to the hole and see what was going on.

Woodpeckers 245

Woodpeckers Laws Germany Research 245

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 23, 2020

I`ve seen three more buntings – one in Germany ( Yellowhammer ) and two in South Africa ( Cape Bunting, Golden-breasted Bunting ). And if you are willing to travel a bit further within China, you can see the Crested Bunting , which arguably has a bit more star quality …. Yellowhammer. Cape Bunting. Golden-breasted Bunting.

South Africa 229

South Africa China Germany Family 229

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 8, 2019

Barn Swallows are pretty much anywhere in the world (I just saw them back in Germany). During my last trip to Germany, several people pointed out locations of Common Kingfisher. So, no, I did not spend time searching for it in Germany. So why shouldn’t they be in Shanghai, at least in summer?

Germany 158

Germany Cattle Blackbirds Birds 158

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 21, 2014

When I was 14, I went on an exchange trip to Germany with my high school band.

McDonalds 232

McDonalds Germany Animal Species 232

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2015

Germany, like most of Europe and very much unlike North America, is home to only one species of squirrel. Mammals Germany red squirrels squirrels' And the squirrel I will post about is indeed what it seems : a cute, little, ferocious, nest-predatory, butt-kicking, cuddly and adorable native critter of Europe, the Eurasian Red Squirrel.

Squirrels 162

Squirrels North America Germany Europe 162

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2022

Still, this Carrion Crow in Munich, Germany, had that Blackbird beat: It came so close to me that it did not fit in the camera’s frame. But they are extremely common up in Baja California and, to judge from this bird in Ensenada, exceedingly trusting — it barely fit in the camera’s frame.

Blackbirds 237

Blackbirds Germany Sparrows Adoptable 237

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2013

They were once a widespread and diverse group, however, with many fossils known from what are now North America and Europe.

Kenya 197

Kenya Parrots Africa North America 197

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 6, 2021

Most of them based in a single attractive, historic, and easily walkable city or town, my tours, under VENT’s Birds, Nature, and Culture rubric, always see plenty of birds: hoopoes and rollers in France, Great Bustards and bean geese in Germany, Fulvous Owls and Black-capped Swallows in Guatemala are just a few examples.

New Jersey 246

New Jersey Guatemala France Birds 246