Choose the winter birds: take part and protect our domestic species!

The “Hour of Winter Birds” will take place from January 10th to 12th, an initiative organized by the Nature Conservation Association (NABU) Germany and the Landesbund for Birds and Nature Conservation (LBV) Bavaria. The aim of this campaign is to count and report birds in your own garden, on the balcony or in public parks. Dr. Knut Neubeck, biologist and chairman of the regional group Garmisch-Partenkirchen/Weilheim-Schongau in LBV, invites all citizens to participate. The focus is particularly on the house red -tailed, which is particularly observed as the "bird of the year".

The campaign offers the participants the opportunity to take an hour and find a quiet place for bird watching. Frequent species of birds that can be seen during the counting campaign are amel, tit and sparrow. In the previous year, 555 participants were recorded in 371 locations in the district. The most common birds from 2024 are the house sparrow with 1820 sightings, followed by the cabbage tit (1654), Blaumeise (1043), Feldsperling (1016) and Amsel (1000).

Counting methods and registration options

The participants are asked to report the highest number of birds at the same time, but lower counts are also welcome and contribute to the data collection. Annations can be made online at www.stunde-der-wintervoegel.de or submitted by post, the registration deadline is on January 20. Prices are also raffled among the participants. In addition, the “school lesson of the winter birds” will take place from January 13th to 17th, in which school classes are invited to participate.

A nesting box for the house red -tailed can also help to create suitable nesting options. For this purpose, it is recommended to attach the box at a partially shaded place at a height of 2-3 meters, with the entry hole towards the east or south-east.

In 2023, a total of over 130,000 people took part in the counting campaign nationwide. However, the decline in species is worrying because around one million animal and plant species are acutely threatened. The causes include space consumption, loss of green areas and the spread of gravel and stone gardens, which has a negative impact on the bird population.