The Uckermark is situated about 80 km northeast of Berlin. This space is simple to achieve from Berlin by prepare. Attention-grabbing chicken species may be noticed within the Uckermark at any time of yr.
Birdwatching in winter on slippery roads (picture: Elke Riedel)
A whole checklist of the birds of the Uckermark may be discovered right here:
www.birdingberlin.com/bird-list/
In autumn, giant flocks of Bramblings migrate by way of the Uckermark. Ring finds show that they arrive from Scandinavia and Siberia. Generally these flocks are combined with Chaffinches. Bramblings normally overwinter in southwest and western Europe.
Brambling (picture: Klaus von der Borch)
The Hawfinch is widespread as a migratory chicken, winter visitor and in addition as a breeding chicken. It normally provides itself away within the treetops with its piercing “zig” name.
Hawfinch
Throughout a bunch tour, a participant discovered a younger Hawfinch on the bottom that had not but fledged and was not being cared for by its dad and mom. My son Jakob took over elevating it after I defined to him that younger Hawfinches can not chew so painfully. Jakob had been there when Hawfinches have been ringed a couple of instances and had seen the blood blisters on my fingers. The discharge of the younger Hawfinch into the wild was profitable.
Jakob feeds the younger Hawfinch
Statement in a Hawfinch habitat
The Eurasian Nuthatch is a typical chicken within the forests and parks of the Uckermark. The German title “Kleiber” comes from the German phrase “kleben” (to stay collectively), because the Nuthatch blocks the doorway to its nest gap in order that solely it may nearly slip in. To do that, it makes use of clay, wooden mulch, items of wooden and tiny beetle elements. One in all my present research includes the DNA metabarcoding of those beetle samplings.
Eurasian Nuthatch
The Eurasian Jay additionally lives in forests, parks and teams of timber. This species is distributed in a number of subspecies throughout Eurasia. The Eurasian Jay can completely imitate the calls and songs of different chicken species. As a newbie, an Eurasian Jay prompted me to rapidly run out of a forest to rely the supposed Better White-fronted Geese – but it surely was solely an Eurasian Jay imitating the calls of Better White-fronted Geese. In September/October there’s a giant inflow of Eurasian Jay from northeastern Europe.
Eurasian Jay
The Goldcrest will also be present in forests, ideally in coniferous forests. Together with the Frequent Firecrest, it’s on of the smallest birds in Europe. A Goldcrest weighs round 5 grams. A chicken weighing 5.5 grams is already thought-about fats. It’s an unimaginable achievement that Goldcrests ringed in Germany fly as far Italy (cross the Alps), Spain and at the same time as far Algeria in North Africa (cross the Mediterranean). The furthest distance between the ringing location and the situation the place it was discovered once more was 2.196 km! Its advantageous, excessive name is normally not audible to older chicken watchers.
Goldcrest
A uncommon resident chicken in Germany is the Crested Lark. A number of specimens may be present in giant livestock stables or on giant flat roofs of commercial estates or procuring facilities.
Crested Lark (picture: Silke Nessing)
The Lengthy-tailed Tit is present in Germany within the subspecies Aegithalos caudatus europaeus. In western Germany, this subspecies has pronounced stripes above the eyes. In japanese Germany, together with the Uckermark, white-headed Lengthy-tailed Tits and intermediate birds (with solely faint head stripes) are discovered. Because the subspecies
Aegithalos caudatus caudatus, which additionally has a white head, lives in japanese Poland, Belarus and northern Europe, area ornithologists confuse these two subspecies. I’ve by no means caught and ringed white-headed Lengthy-tailed Tits of the subspecies Aegithalos caudatus caudatus – solely dozens of white-headed Lengthy-tailed Tits of the subspecies Aegithalos caudatus europaeus.
Lengthy-tailed Tit of the subspecies Aegithalos caudatus europaeus
The Yellowhammer is a typical chicken of open land and forest edges. Through the breeding season, its typical music “si-si-si-SÜÜÜ” may be heard from far-off. The music is paying homage to Ludwig van Beethoven´s Symphony No. 5 in C minor, op. 67, 1st motion – Allegro con brio. A lot of my chicken watcher shoppers need to been capable of keep in mind this music effectively as a “Beethoven chicken”. In winter, Yellowhammers usually collect in bigger flocks and may then be discovered close to cattle stables and feed silos.
Yellowhammer
The marginally bigger Corn Bunting is a uncommon breeding chicken in Germany. Nevertheless, right here, within the Uckermark in japanese Germany, it may be present in good numbers. Its music is paying homage to a “bundle of keys” or a coin that you simply twist on a desk. The Corn Bunting doesn’t require any particular habitats. As a ground-nesting chicken, it’s proud of a path or roadside with wild crops, dangerous land with a bush or a tree as singing place. On a distribution map of the Corn Bunting in Germany, you possibly can nearly nonetheless see the previous border between western and japanese Germany. Japanese Germany is wilder and there are extra badlands and unkempt roadsides – that is good for the Corn Bunting.
Corn Bunting (picture: Klaus von der Borch)
Openland within the Uckermark area, Germany: good habitats for Yellowhammer and Corn Bunting
