Hour of the winter birds 2022: These are the most counted animals

Created: 2022-01-27 09:57

By: Joana Lück

House sparrows are one of the endangered bird species.

(Iconic image) © Michael Schön/Imago

The result of the "Hour of the Winter Birds", which was initiated by the nature conservation Germany at the beginning of January, is available and unfortunately there is little reason for joy.

Berlin/Hamburg – There was a lot to do for all hobby ornithologists this month: The “Hour of the Winter Birds” initiated by the German Nature Conservation Union (NABU) lasted from January 6th to 9th in 2022.

The aim was to use a counting aid or an app to count and note birds for an hour and thus provide the NABU experts with important data on the bird population.

24garten.de has all the results.

These do not look good, especially for two major German cities.

Hour of the winter birds 2022: These are the most counted animals

More and more birds are among the endangered animal species.

They often do not come back to Germany after the winter or their population is declining due to climate change.

While the interim results of the census gave hope that some populations are recovering, all nationwide results of the "Hour of the Winter Birds 2022" are now available.

According to the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), around 176,000 people took part in the campaign;

In Bavaria alone there were 34,000 animal lovers.

The most counted species were:

• sparrow or house sparrow

• great tit

• tree sparrow

• blue tit

• blackbird

In Bavaria, the Great Spotted Woodpecker has been spotted more frequently than in recent years, while the house sparrow is the least common nationwide with only one sparrow per counting location.

Hour of the Winter Birds 2022: Outlook

According to the NDR, the results are below the average of all campaign years.

There is a decreasing trend: While in the first year of the campaign in 2011 almost 46 birds were counted per sighting, 2022 was significantly more disappointing with a value of 35.5.

At only 26.4, Hamburg is far below.

Food shortages, but also special viruses and diseases that have spread through bird food, are causing problems for the bird population as a whole.

The complete results can be found here.

The next bird census, 'Garden Bird Hour', will take place on 13-15 May 2022 and will focus on birds in gardens and parks.

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