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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.
Since I’m not exactly an ornithological expert, this ranking is purely based on my personal thoughts and impressions of these species. The bronze medal ( 3 rd place ) goes to: The European Robin (Erithacus rubecula) Robins are very common in Germany. I’m absolutely smitten with owls, regardless of their species.
Germany is currently experiencing something for which the English have no nice expression. We call it a “mouse gradation year” I was not able to find a catchy English term for “gradation year” – it’s what happens when a certain species showing population cycles reaches a peak year.
Not how many bird species , but how many bird individuals. The Wagbachniederung is reknown for its waterfowl, shorebirds, and good breeding populations of several species that are very localized in Germany. I want to know – just roughly – how many birds I have seen in my life.
It has recently been reclassified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List; this category is reserved for only the most threatened species in the world. If this bird did become extinct, it would be the first pheasant species to have been lost in the 400 years since proper records began.
For once, eBird gives a good description of the Asian Glossy Starling, calling it a “Fierce-looking, large songbird” As are humans, this species is fairly urbanized – it “sometimes enters urban areas to roost, e.g. in Singapore” (HBW). Lucky ducks. “Odd, me?”
The selections appear to largely reflect Hauber’s personal experiences around the world and he does occasionally bring himself into the essay, reflecting on a European Robin he observes at dusk in northwestern Germany or searching for American Robin nests on a tree farm in the Midwestern United States. of Chicago Press, 2014).
Within its European range, it was heavily hunted until the late 19th century, and the Mute Swan was subsequently a very rare bird to encounter in the wild. Starting in the 16th century, the species was released widely on ponds and parks and rivers throughout Europe where it flourished remarkably and continues to do so to this very day.
Although I once saw a group of Barn Swallows pass overhead a few weeks earlier, these birds were clearly on passage only as there was no sign of this species since. Eventually however, a large group was hunting insects over the pond in the nearby park, showing off their shimmering metal-blue backs.
The USA’s only truly indigenous parrot was wiped out by a combination of factors, although direct persecution through hunting seems to have been the major contributor. Nearly 70 species of parrots have been recorded flying free at some stage or another in Miami, including Hyacinth Macaws. I suspect that it is just this.
The very first thing we notice about this large member of the Galliformes is that there is a wild version and a domestic version, and although the two are rather different, they are both given the same species name, Meleagris gallopavo. They may have also had hunting dogs with them as well. Which would be weird.
I am not entirely sure whether most birders outside Germany know or realize that Germany still has a decent population of one of Europe’s most attractive and desired bird species: the Great Bustard Otis tarda. Now that I might have wetted your appetite, here’s where and how to find them in Germany: 1.
This is “the deep cradle of Western ornithology: the birthplace of bird study,” he tells us as he writes about gazing at the 8,000-year old depictions of “flamingos, herons, raptors, avocets and many other species” (p. With Birkhead, you never know what’s going to come next.
One study found that birds living in Botswana had elevated levels of lead in their bloodstreams during hunting season, presumably coming from lead bullets used on animals killed by hunters. I could immediately tell them it was an Egyptian Goose – an invasive species in Germany but not at Kruger. ” (HBW).
I have caught a bus across Europe, but I can’t really claim to have “been” to Germany or Belgium. Generally, I need to have cleared immigration and/or spent some time in the country actually visiting it.
Understanding a pointed finger may seem easy, but consider this: while humans and canines can do it naturally, no other known species in the animal kingdom can. It’s no coincidence that the two species that pass Hare’s pointing test also share a profound cross-species bond.
are up next, with a wonderful Australian species: It is very hard to choose a Best Bird of the Year any year. The male of this species has a royal blue throat, a white chest and rump, and a long v-shaped tail with intermittent white patches that makes it looks like part of it are floating in space. Clare (and Grant!) How cool is that?
This model was very popular in Germany in the 1970s and 1980s and it was commonly called “Ente“ (duck) due to its round hood. And then we have the terms “Eule“ and “Kauz“, but the assigning of the various species into these two categories is not consistend and lacks taxonomic base and reason.
Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills goes on to give greater detail of the former nesting sites in Europe: it could once be found “in southern Germany and Austria, in the valleys of the upper Rhine and Danube Rivers, and in the Alps of Switzerland, Italy and Germany, and perhaps in Hungary and Greece”.
Shockingly, the Ashy-throated Parrotbill apparently is a species heavily hunted for bird fighting in Guizhou Province, China ( source ). If being hunted by evil humans was not enough, Ashy-throated Parrotbills are also hosts of the parasitic Common Cuckoo. Unfortunately, some other species do not seem to listen to the wren much.
Seattle doesn’t root just for the Seahawks … study reports that Emerald City residents (and those of Berlin, Germany) find common birds like finches and corvids worth opening their wallets for. Someone better tell that flamingo not to stay put and avoid Malta, where voters narrowly rejected a ban on hunting migratory birds.
Scaup are so worthless that when you input “I love scaup” into Google you only get four results and three of them are hunting related. Second, once you’ve identified that distant scaup to species do you feel like you’ve accomplishaed anything? First, it’s not terribly difficult. ” Imagine that!
Personally, I wish the species the best of luck in this endeavor. (Of However, the fact that there are 30 subspecies seems to indicate that the species has a slightly overblown estimation of its own importance. This species has a relatively large number of calls – 12, to be specific, compared to the average of 7.6
Particularly the latter – Nabang – would in the past easily have merited its own post, but recent developments there that now make the place a bit like the former border between West and East Germany changed that. ” Blue-bearded Bee-eaters seem to have a pretty clever hunting strategy. But not to bees.
Given the complexity of the research, the result feels like a bit of a letdown – “northern populations start migration earlier than southern populations, especially in autumn” The species name of the Chestnut-eared Bunting is fucata , from the Latin “fucare”, to paint red.
Orlando is so rich in roadside and overhead birds that I kept a list of species seen from the car which ran to 30+ on the first morning and included a Bald Eagle nonchalantly sitting on a street lamp by a Target store. This is not good habitat for a Redgannet ; I had to get out of line.
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