The Uckermark is situated about 80 km northeast of Berlin. This space is straightforward to achieve from Berlin by practice. Fascinating chicken species could be noticed within the Uckermark at any time of yr.
Birdwatching in winter on slippery roads (photograph: Elke Riedel)
An entire record of the birds of the Uckermark could be discovered right here.
In autumn, massive 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 often overwinter in southwest and western Europe.
Brambling (photograph: Klaus von der Borch)
The Hawfinch is widespread as a migratory chicken, winter visitor, and in addition as a breeding chicken. It often offers 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 now not being cared for by its dad and mom. My son Jakob took over elevating it after I defined to him that younger Hawfinches couldn’t chew so painfully. Jakob had been there when Hawfinches had been ringed a number 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
Remark 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 could actually nearly slip in. To do that, it makes use of clay, wooden mulch, items of wooden, and tiny beetle components. Certainly one of my present research entails the DNA metabarcoding of those beetle samplings.
Eurasian Nuthatch
The Eurasian Jay additionally lives in forests, parks and teams of bushes. 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 shortly run out of a forest to rely the supposed Higher White-fronted Geese – nevertheless it was solely an Eurasian Jay imitating the calls of Higher White-fronted Geese. In September/October there’s a massive inflow of Eurasian Jays from northeastern Europe.
Eurasian Jay
The Goldcrest can be present in forests, ideally in coniferous forests. Together with the Widespread Firecrest, it’s one of the smallest birds in Europe. A Goldcrest weighs round 5 grams. A chicken weighing 5.5 grams is already thought of fats. It’s an unimaginable achievement that Goldcrests ringed in Germany fly so far as Italy (cross the Alps), Spain, and even so far as Algeria in North Africa (cross the Mediterranean). The furthest distance between the ringing location and the placement the place it was discovered once more was 2.196 km! Its superb, excessive name is often now not audible to older chicken watchers.
Goldcrest
A uncommon resident chicken in Germany is the Crested Lark. A couple of specimens could be present in massive livestock stables or on massive flat roofs of commercial estates or buying facilities.
Crested Lark (photograph: 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 jap Germany, together with the Uckermark, white-headed Lengthy-tailed Tits and intermediate birds (with solely faint head stripes) are discovered. For the reason that subspecies Aegithalos caudatus caudatus, which additionally has a white head, lives in jap 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 (supply).
Lengthy-tailed Tit of the subspecies Aegithalos caudatus europaeus
The Yellowhammer is a typical chicken of open land and forest edges. In the course of the breeding season, its typical track “si-si-si-SÜÜÜ” could be heard from far-off. The track 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 have been in a position to bear in mind this chicken properly as a “Beethoven chicken”. In winter, Yellowhammers typically 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 jap Germany, it may be present in good numbers. Its track 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 pleased with a path or roadside with wild vegetation, unhealthy land with a bush or a tree as a singing place. On a distribution map of the Corn Bunting in Germany, you may nearly nonetheless see the previous border between western and jap Germany. Jap Germany is wilder and there are extra badlands and unkempt roadsides – that is good for the Corn Bunting.
Corn Bunting (photograph: Klaus von der Borch)
Open land within the Uckermark area, Germany: good habitats for Yellowhammer and Corn Bunting
