Action of the Nabu
“Hour of the Garden Birds” calls for bird counting
In a few days, NABU’s hands-on bird counting campaign will be up again. In recent years there has been a trend towards a decreasing diversity of bird species. Photo: Monika Skolimowska/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Count birds in the garden, on the balcony or in the park for an hour: from May 13th to 15th, the Nabu invites citizens to the counting campaign. About 140,000 people took part last year.
Which birds flutter through parks and gardens? Nature conservation organizations are again asking these questions at the “Hour of the Garden Birds”.
From May 13th to 15th, the German Nature Conservation Union (Nabu) and the Bavarian State Union for Bird Protection (LBV) are calling on the population for the 18th time to spend an hour counting and reporting the birds on their doorstep.
Fewer and fewer different birds in the gardens
The counting action shows trends in how the stocks of the individual bird species are developing, said the LBV biologist Angela Nelson. “Even some former commonplace species, such as house sparrows or swallows, have decreased in number in recent years.” The variety of bird species in the garden is also decreasing.
According to the nature conservation associations, anyone can take part in the campaign. To do this, the birds in the garden, on the balcony, in front of the window or in the park only have to be counted for one hour during the observation period and the highest number of a species that can be observed at the same time is reported via the Internet or an app.
In 2021, 140,000 people took part in the campaign
According to Nabu, more than 140,000 people nationwide took part last year. In total, more than 3.1 million birds of almost 230 different species were reported. The long-term trend of fewer insectivorous bird species being reported continued.