Bird of the Year

The house martin builds its nest from little pellets of mud, usually right under the eaves and often several nests side by side. That is exactly its problem: nests get removed from houses, and as insects vanish, so does its food. In 2027 it is Bird of the Year for the second time after 1974, chosen in a public vote.

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The grey partridge lives on the ground, among fields, hedges, field margins and fallow land – the very edges that have disappeared from much of today's farmland. Only about 50,000 pairs still breed in Germany. In the vote for Bird of the Year 2026 it won 44.5 percent; it had already held the title in 1991.

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The black redstart started out as a bird of steep mountain cliffs. Today it nests in cracks and holes in house fronts, under eaves and bridges – in villages, vineyards, industrial sites and cities. In the vote for Bird of the Year 2025 it won 30.2 percent. Its motto was “Mind the gap”: renovations seal many of its nooks, and as insects decline, so does its food.

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The lapwing nests on the ground in open, flat country – meadows and pastures, waterside edges, wet grassland and bogs. Drainage and the loss of wet meadows have shrunk its numbers sharply, and the Red List counts it as highly endangered. In 2024 it was voted Bird of the Year with 27.8 percent, for the second time after 1996. Rewetting meadows and bogs could stop its decline.

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The whinchat lives in damp meadows, on fallow land and along field edges. Single bushes, tall herbs and fence posts serve as its lookouts, and it hides its nest in a hollow in tall grass. It is on the Red List almost everywhere in Europe, and only 19,500 to 35,000 pairs still breed in Germany. In 2023 it won the public vote for Bird of the Year – a title it already held in 1987.

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With its raisable crest, long curved bill and black-and-white barred wings, the hoopoe is hard to mistake. It needs warm, open landscapes full of insects, such as the Kaiserstuhl, Rheinhessen or Lusatia. Only 800 to 950 pairs breed in Germany. In 2022 it won the vote with 31.9 percent under the motto “Poison is no solution” – many insects survive only where no pesticides are sprayed.

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The robin starts singing about an hour before sunrise and can be heard almost all year round. It often comes within a metre of people – just as it follows large animals that stir up insects as they walk. For the 50th anniversary of the Bird of the Year, the public got to vote for the first time in 2021, and more than 455,000 people took part. The robin won, with the motto “More variety in gardens”.

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The turtle dove originally lived in floodplain forests, along woodland edges and in clearings. Since 1980 its numbers have fallen by almost 90 percent, and only 12,500 to 22,000 pairs still breed in Germany. It was the first Bird of the Year that is also on the global Red List. It lacks fallow land, field margins and wild plants, and in the EU alone more than 1.4 million turtle doves are legally shot every year.

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The skylark sings on the wing, mostly 50 to 200 metres up, and its trilling has always been the sound of open fields. With 1.3 to 2 million territories it is still common, but its numbers are falling clearly: dense winter cereals, rapeseed and maize leave little room for further broods. NABU and LBV tied its choice as Bird of the Year 2019 to a call for a fundamentally different EU farming policy.

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The starling is seen as an everyday bird: it nests in tree holes and nest boxes, in towns also in nooks in roofs and walls, and forages in parks, cemeteries and allotments. Yet Germany alone lost a million starling pairs in two decades, and in 2015 it went on the Red List. NABU and LBV chose it in 2018 because old hollow trees are disappearing and intensively farmed meadows and fields hold few worms and insects.

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The goldfinch, also called the thistle finch in German, wears a bold red-and-black face mask. It feeds mainly on half-ripe and ripe seeds of herbs, meadow plants and trees. Between 1990 and 2013 its numbers in Germany fell by 48 percent, and the loss of fallow land is its greatest threat. NABU and LBV chose it in 2016 to draw attention to an impoverished countryside and called for “colourful metres” of wildflowers.

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The goshawk is an agile bird of prey that hunts mainly small to medium-sized birds and mammals. Some hunters and poultry keepers dislike it, even though all birds of prey are protected in Germany. Over ten years more than 1,130 killed birds of prey were documented – shot, trapped or poisoned. NABU and LBV sent the goshawk into 2015 as an ambassador against the illegal persecution of birds of prey.

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The green woodpecker mostly feeds on the ground, pulling ants out of the soil with its long tongue. It lives wherever there are old trees for nest holes and enough ants – in orchards, gardens, parks and on wasteland. Unlike the birds of the previous years it is not threatened; its numbers have grown clearly since 1991. NABU and LBV chose it in 2014 to stand for traditional orchard meadows, which have shrunk dramatically.

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The snipe breeds in bogs, wet grassland and meadows. In its display flight it drops from a great height, and its spread outer tail feathers make a drumming sound; in some regions it is called the “sky goat”. In Germany it is threatened with extinction, with only 5,500 to 6,700 breeding pairs left. In 2013 NABU and LBV made it their ambassador for saving bogs and wet meadows.

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The jackdaw is a small member of the crow family with pale blue eyes and counts as one of the most intelligent native birds. Pairs stay together for life and live sociably in colonies, nesting in church towers, wall holes, roof spaces and old woodpecker holes. Exactly these places are lost to renovation and fenced-off towers. NABU and LBV chose it in 2012, when its German population had dropped to an estimated 100,000 breeding pairs.

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The common redstart nests in holes, found above all in old fruit trees, and lives in open broadleaf woods, parks, gardens and traditional orchards; it spends the winter south of the Sahara. Orchard belts give way to housing estates, and gardens turn into lawns and exotic shrubs. It has vanished from many villages in western Germany, and only 110,000 to 160,000 pairs still breed there. That made it Bird of the Year 2011.

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The cormorant has lived in Central Europe since the Ice Age, eats almost nothing but fish and breeds in colonies on coasts and large waters. It is often seen perched with outspread wings, drying its feathers. About 24,000 pairs breed in Germany, yet after its return it was again shot and driven off by the thousands. NABU and LBV chose it in 2010 to stand up for its protection – anglers and fishermen protested fiercely.

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The kingfisher lives along clear streams, rivers and lakes with plenty of small fish, watching for prey from a perch above the water. It digs its nesting tunnel with its bill into steep banks of clay or sand. It was Bird of the Year once before, in 1973; in 2009 it stood again for living rivers and floodplains – the last natural stretches of water are to be kept, and restored where they have been lost.

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The cuckoo builds no nest of its own: the female lays her eggs one by one in the nests of smaller songbirds, which then raise the chick. It spends the winter in Africa, mostly south of the equator. NABU and LBV chose it in 2008 because it is vanishing from many places – its habitat is being lost both in Germany and in its winter quarters, and pesticides take away the insects it feeds on.

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The kestrel hovers with rapid wingbeats, perfectly still above fields and roadside verges, usually looking out for voles. It has made itself at home in towns too, nesting in wall niches of old buildings. When it became Bird of the Year in 2007, its numbers were slowly but steadily falling, along with its food, its nesting sites and its habitat.

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The nuthatch is the only bird that can walk head first down a tree trunk, picking insects out of the bark with its pointed bill. It plasters the entrance of its nest hole with mud and saliva until only it can still squeeze through. Because it depends so closely on woods with old trees, it became Bird of the Year in 2006 – speaking up for oak and beech forests.

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At around 70 centimetres, the eagle-owl is the largest owl in Europe. In central Europe it nests mainly on cliffs and in quarries, hunting across varied country with hedges, water and fields. In Germany it had almost been wiped out. NABU and LBV chose it in 2005 as a conservation success: thanks to targeted protection programmes it is found throughout the country again.

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The wren weighs a mere ten grams and is one of the smallest birds in Europe. It scurries almost like a mouse through the undergrowth close to the ground, yet its song is astonishingly loud. It is not endangered. In 2004 it stood for all the animals and plants that need intact, natural surroundings – including wild-looking gardens, which are becoming ever rarer.

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The swift spends almost its entire life on the wing and is not related to swallows at all. Instead of cliffs, it now nests under roofs and in the nooks of old houses. In 2003 NABU and LBV used it, as they had the sparrow the year before, to draw attention to the ecological problems of towns and villages: renovated, tightly sealed buildings leave it hardly any room to nest.

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The great crested grebe nests on lakes and larger ponds fringed with reeds. It is known for its courtship: the pair shake their spread crests and, paddling hard, rise almost upright out of the water facing each other. NABU and LBV chose it in 2001 to draw attention to protecting lakes and ponds – bathers, water sports and anglers on the banks disturb its nesting.

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The red kite is easy to recognise by its long, forked, rust-red tail. More than half of all red kites in the world breed in Germany, which gives the country a special responsibility for it. Its selection in 2000 pointed to that, and to the effects of intensive farming: it is increasingly short of food and of old trees to nest in.

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The yellowhammer lives in open farmland with hedges, bushes and small copses, usually hiding its nest on the ground, often at the foot of a hedge. The bright yellow male sings from a raised perch, often until late summer. For a long time the bird did well out of farming. It became Bird of the Year in 1999 because ever more intensive agriculture was increasingly threatening it.

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The skylark nests on the ground in open fields and meadows and is known for the long song it delivers in flight. Since the 1970s its numbers have fallen sharply, mainly because of intensified farming – in some areas by 50 to 90 percent. In choosing it in 1998, NABU warned that it could become rare or disappear altogether in many parts of Germany.

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The great spotted woodpecker is the most common woodpecker in Germany. It carves its nest hole into trunks or thick branches and eats insects from the wood, but also seeds, nuts and tree sap. It is not under immediate threat. In 1997 it stood for all the woodland animals that suffer as natural forests decline – the message: living woods instead of monotonous plantations.

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The lapwing is easy to recognise by its upswept crest and black-and-white plumage. It nests in a shallow scrape on the ground, preferably in damp meadows, pastures and flood plains. Drainage, falling groundwater and early mowing have driven it from many wet meadows, and on arable fields it rarely raises young successfully. This steep decline was one reason it became Bird of the Year in 1996.

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The nightingale is plain brown, but its song is famous: it masters between 120 and 260 different phrase types, and it does not only sing at night. It hides its nest on or near the ground in open broadleaf and riverside woods, parks and hedgerows. It became Bird of the Year in 1995 because it was running out of places to breed: where undergrowth and leaf litter disappear, it loses its cover.

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The little ringed plover originally nested on gravel islands and the flat banks of untamed rivers. Since rivers were straightened, it has moved to gravel pits and other bare ground near water. In 1993 it showed how much a species depends on what people do: these substitute habitats are often used for leisure too, and bathers, off-road vehicles and mountain bikes drive it from its nesting sites.

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The robin is one of the most common songbirds and remarkably bold: it often comes within a metre of people. It lives in woods with plenty of undergrowth, in hedges, parks and gardens, and usually builds its nest on the ground. It became Bird of the Year in 1992 because it shows forest dieback particularly clearly – it needs a forest floor with leaf litter and undergrowth.

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The grey partridge was originally a bird of steppes and heaths and only moved into farmland as fields spread. It hides its nest on the ground along field margins, hedges and track edges. When NABU named it Bird of the Year in 1991, it was already on Germany's Red List – because of shrinking habitat, lack of food and continued hunting.

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The male golden oriole is bright yellow with black wings, yet few people ever see one: it mostly stays hidden in the canopy of tall trees. Its fluting "didlioh" call, on the other hand, carries well. It lives in riverside and broadleaf woods and in parks, and winters in Africa. It became Bird of the Year in 1990 because the destruction of floodplains and old broadleaf forests had made it rare.

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The reed warbler lives almost entirely in dense reed beds. Rather than flying, it usually clambers nimbly up and down the stems, and its finely woven nest hangs between several reeds. As Bird of the Year 1989 it stood for the whole community of life in the reeds, which suffers wherever wetlands are drained, banks are built up and waters are overloaded with nutrients.

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The wryneck is a woodpecker, yet with its bark-coloured plumage it looks more like a songbird. It owes its name to its ability to turn its head by more than 180 degrees. It does not carve its own hole and searches the ground for ants and their brood. Where orchard meadows, dry grassland and fallow land disappear and meadows are over-fertilised, the ants go – which is why it is on the Red List.

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The whinchat returns from Africa in April and usually builds its nest on the ground – in meadows, along ditches and field margins. It needs single taller plants, posts or trees as lookouts. It is one of the species hit hardest by intensive grassland farming: where meadows are mown early and several times a year and sprayed, the Bird of the Year 1987 loses both its nest sites and its insect food.

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Rooks breed in colonies that can number several hundred pairs, building their nests in treetops. The big flocks on winter fields are mostly visitors from Eastern Europe – as a breeding bird the rook is on the Red List in several German states. Seen as a pest of sown crops, it was shot and poisoned and its nesting trees were felled, even though it also eats plenty of insects and mice.

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The red-backed shrike lives in sunny, half-open countryside with dense hedges and scrub. Its German name, “Neuntöter” (“nine-killer”), comes from its habit of impaling insects, mice or small birds on thorns as a larder. As Bird of the Year 1985 it became the emblem of hedge-nesting birds, and its selection set off a wave of efforts in Germany to protect and plant hedges.

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The sand martin is Europe's smallest swallow. It breeds in colonies and digs its nesting burrows into freshly collapsed, sandy banks. Since rivers were straightened and built up, such eroding banks have all but vanished, so today it nests mainly in sand and gravel pits. These rarely last more than a few decades, though, and cannot replace its natural breeding sites for good.

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The curlew is the largest of its kind and easy to recognise by its long, curved bill, which it uses to probe soft ground for worms and insects. Probably a bird of the bogs at first, it now breeds mainly in damp meadows. Its fate is closely tied to farming: where grassland is ploughed up or mown too early, it is left no time to raise its young.

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The black woodpecker carves its nesting and roosting holes into old, thick trees, preferably beeches 80 to 100 years old. Many other animals benefit from its work – stock doves, jackdaws and Tengmalm's owls, but also bats and wild bees. That is why in 1981 it stood for all the forest's cavity nesters: where old timber is felled early and hole trees are removed, none of them find room.

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The black grouse lives on wide heaths and bogs and, in the mountains, at the tree line. The blue-black cocks display with red “roses” above their eyes, and their bubbling calls carry for kilometres. Fairly widespread until the mid-twentieth century, it is now extremely rare in Germany. Drained and dug-out bogs, heaths turned into forest and new winter sports areas have taken its habitat.

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The barn swallow builds its open mud nest mostly inside cowsheds and barns and hunts flying insects over fields and meadows. That makes it dependent on farms that leave a window open for it. Its numbers in Germany have been falling since the 1970s: small farms give up, sheds are closed off, and on tarmacked farm tracks there are no muddy puddles left for nest-building.

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Cranes breed in bogs, swampy woods and wet meadows, and in autumn tens of thousands stop over in Germany on migration. When the crane was named Bird of the Year in 1978, it was among the rarest birds in West Germany; in the 1970s only about 800 pairs bred in all of Germany. Efforts to protect it have helped it recover markedly since then.

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The barn owl, with its heart-shaped white facial disc, breeds right among human settlements, often in church towers and barns, and hunts mice over open ground. In the 1970s it was considered highly endangered, partly because nest sites were lost when old buildings were torn down or renovated. Its selection in 1977 set off a wave of conservation work, and its numbers have recovered well since.

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The hoopoe, with its raisable orange crest and long bill, likes warm, dry, open country with short, sparse vegetation where it hunts on the ground. It nests in cavities, for instance in old fruit trees or walls. It has become rare in Central Europe: intensive farming, pesticides and the clearing of old orchard trees rob it of food and nest holes.

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The golden plover breeds on raised bogs, wet heaths and boggy grassland with low vegetation; its range lies across northern Eurasia. In Germany, drainage, peat cutting and the planting of forests on bogs have all but driven it out. Today only about 20 pairs breed in a single bog area in Lower Saxony, and they survive there only thanks to targeted protection.

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The house martin sticks its nest of mud and clay to the outside of buildings and winters in Africa south of the Sahara. When it was chosen in 1974 it was already seen as in need of protection – a lack of nest material, fewer insects and destroyed nests take their toll. That autumn a sudden cold snap caught countless swallows and martins, and bird lovers arranged the transport of more than a million birds.

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The kingfisher plunges headfirst into the water like an arrow to catch small fish, and digs its nesting tunnel into steep, natural banks. It is seen as a sign of healthy waters. Engineering, straightening and pollution of streams and rivers hurt it: every bank that is shored up means one less possible nest site, and the number of nest sites decides how many kingfishers there can be.

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The little owl, with its big yellow eyes, lives in open grassland with old trees, especially orchard meadows and pastures with pollarded trees, and usually nests in tree holes. It avoids woodland altogether. This patchwork landscape is becoming ever rarer in Central Europe: cleared orchards and pollards and more intensively farmed meadows are taking away its habitat.

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The peregrine hunts almost only birds in open flight and nests on cliffs, in quarries or on tall buildings. When the Deutscher Bund für Vogelschutz (DBV), NABU's predecessor, named it the very first Bird of the Year in 1971, the species was on the brink: pesticides such as DDT made its eggshells thin. The DDT ban and volunteers guarding the nests turned it into one of bird conservation's great success stories.

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