Counting campaign for winter birds: Experience nature together!

Counting campaign for winter birds: Experience nature together!

In January, Austria is all about birds! From 4 to January 6, 2025, the country's largest Citizen Science campaign, the "hour of winter birds", will be carried out again. Organized by Birdlife Austria, this campaign takes place for the 16th time. Over 27,000 participants had counted over 687,000 birds last year, which shows the great interest in watching birds. Nevertheless, there are worrying trends: While an average of 40 birds per message were recorded in the early years of the counting campaign, this value has been under 30 birds in recent years, as Birdlife Austria emphasizes. This means that it is more important than ever to actively participate in the bird count and document the current data in order to be able to draw long -term conclusions. Gábor Wichmann from Birdlife Austria appeals to the nature lovers to keep their binoculars and their counting arches between 4 and 6 January and report their observations.

success in Switzerland

A similar commitment shows the neighboring country Switzerland with the "hour of garden birds", which took place from 8th to 12th May and mobilized more than 7,200 participants. These counted a total of an impressive 142,581 birds in gardens and school environments. The house sparrow led the list and occurred in 82 percent of the counted areas. Despite the relatively stable numbers, the evaluation of the bird species viewed in the past ten years has shown significant changes. Certain birds such as the gray shopper have almost disappeared, while natural gardens support a greater variety of bird species. Birdlife Switzerland encourages all gardeners to enrich their outdoor areas with domestic plants to promote bird populations, as can be found on their website.

Both actions illustrate the importance of civil engagement in the field of nature conservation and biodiversity -promoting measures, even if the trends are worrying. The counts not only show the current state of our bird world, but also, how important it is to actively contribute to improving living conditions for our feathered friends. Participation in these projects is not only informative, but is also fun and connects people with nature.