As every year, the winter bird count 2025 (German: “Stunde der Wintervögel”), again, took time on the second weekend of January. Which was the most observed bird this year? Did observations of some birds decrease? And how many people participated this year in the bird count? In this blog entry I write about my observations which I made on the weekend of the winter bird count 2025.
Winter bird count 2025
After skipping the bird count in winter 2024, I was very keen on participating in the bird count this year again.
Thus, I set out for the next nerby park in Berlin to observe and count birds for one hour. I went to the Volkspark Friedrichshain. Even though the park can be crowded on Sunday, I still decided to go there and see the birds. It was even, surprisingly, not that crowded on that day. Maybe because it was winter.
Nevertheless, I could count several bird species on that Sunday afternoon. Every time I participate in these bird counts, I realize how many bird species live in a well-attended city park.
The first bird I saw was a hooded crow. Were there even more hooded crows around? In that moment, I could not detect another hooded crow close-by, although I knew that many hooded crows live in the Volkspark Friedrichshain.
Later, by the way, I saw more hooded crows. In one moment I counted five of them.
Important: Please look at the rules how you have to count birds, both for the bird count in winter and in spring. That means, you should count only the number of birds of a species, which you can see in one moment at one place. This is important, as birds can fly away and appear again. This rule helps to prevent counting birds multiple times.
Just a few meters away from the first hooded crow, I heard a Eurasian nuthatch full-throatedly calling. Or were there two of them?
I could not see it. Thus, I annotated a Eurasian nuthatch, but just one individual.
Another singing bird I could hear was the short-toed treecreeper. And again, I could not see the bird. By the way, Eurasian nuthatches and short-toed treecreepers are relatively easy to identify by their bird songs and calls.
As I unfortunately could only hear, but not see the Eurasian nuthatch (photograph on the left) and the short-toed treecreeper (photograph on the right), the following photographs are not from the day of the Sunday afternoon when I was observing birds for the winter bird count 2025.
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If you participate in one of the bird counts, consider to observe and count birds only in a certain area. I moved around a little bit, but I mainly stayed close to a bird feeder.
In one of the trees close to that bird feeder I spotted a Eurasian jay. At first, I noticed that bird by its calls, again. But luckily, that time I could make some beautiful observations. I even saw two of them.
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On another tree I saw another bird. It was a great spotted woodpecker. As that woodpecker was up in the tree, I could not take a photograph.
But on another day I was more lucky with a photograph of a great spotted woodpecker.
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And then I heard the typical “laughter” of a green woodpecker. I had already known that there were green woodpeckers in the Volkspark Friedrichshain. I even had already seen them before. But unfortunately, when I prepared myself to take a photograph, the green woodpecker moved to the other side of the branch and flew away.
Did I scare the bird? I was on the ground and far away. But maybe, the bird sensed my presence.
So far, I could not get a satisfying photograph of a green woodpecker. I have to try harder.
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In the last half an hour of my observations for the winter bird count 2025, I was just next to the bird feeder.
I was not the only one. Maybe I was the only one who counted birds, but I was not the only one who admired the birds at the bird feeder.
The first bird I noticed was a starling. I love starlings and their songs and calls. Interestingly, that starling seemed to be the only one. There was no other starling around. Thus, I could contribute only one individual for the bird count.
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I saw especially many great tits. In total, I counted nine. But I think there were even more of them. As they flew so quickly from one side to the other side, it was quite hard to count the number of them. I tried my best.
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Additionally, there were not only great tits, but also blue tits. There were not that many of them around, but still some. I counted four blue tits. But here again, I think there were more than four blue tits.
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Not very conspicuous, in contrast, was a single common blackbird. I noticed in that moment again, that I don’s see common blackbirds that often anymore. Is that just my observation or is this a trend among common blackbirds?
I hope it was just my observation so far.
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House sparrows, as well, were not that conspicuous and seemingly tried to rather hide from all the visitors. They appeared quite well-fed and in contrast to all the great and blue tits, they stayed more on the ground than flying around.
I see house sparrows like great and blue tits frequently around the bird feeder. But sometimes not. Great and blue tits are always around.
By the way, if you have birdseeds in your hand and hold your hand up in the air, great and blue tits will land for a short moment on your hand to pick a birdseed. House sparrows, so far, never have shown this behavior in my presence.
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In one moment, I saw a single common chaffinch resting on a branch. It was so beautiful. I always enjoy in spring their bird songs. In winter, I do not encounter them on a regular basis. But sometimes they also visit the bird feeder like on the day of the winter bird count 2025.
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Besides all the small songbirds and the larger hooded crows, there were also woodpigeons around. Often, they would just sit quietly on a branch observing the scenery. Like that time again.
Woodpigeons are quite common birds in the Volkspark Friedrichshain like great and blue tits, but also hooded crows.
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By the way, I had two more beautiful observations. One observation was quite special, because I do not encounter these animals very often. It was an observation of a striped field mouse.
It was a shy striped field mouse. The mouse cautiously left its safe den for a few seconds to collect some seeds and left again.
Of course, the striped field mouse was not only for me a special encounter, but also for the other visitors.
The other non-bird observation was the one with a Eurasian red squirrel. I see them quite often around the bird feeder, as they are used to get nuts from visitors or feed on some birdseeds. By the way, Eurasian red squirrels love hazelnuts
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Information: Do you want to participate in the next winter bird count in 2026? If yes, the next winter bird count takes place in 2026 starting on the 9th of January and ending on the 11th of January.
Results of the winter bird count 2025
Returning to the questions at the beginning of this blog entry, more than 120.000 bird lovers – in German “Vogelfreunde” – participated in the winter bird count 2025 (it was exactly 122.056 bird lovers). All these bird lovers counted more than 2,7 millions of birds in German gardens and parks (here it was exactly 1.767.249 birds).
The most observed bird in winter 2025 in Germany was the house sparrow.
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Last year, as well, the house sparrow was the most counted bird in Germany. However, although the house sparrow reached the first position, the number of their observations decreased by 13% when compared to the previous year.
In Berlin, again, the house sparrow was the most common bird. Observations of house sparrows in Berlin decreased even by 17%.
Both Germany-wide and in Berlin, the great tit reached position two.
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Again, there were decreases with respect to observations. All over Germany, great tit observations decreased by 7%, in Berlin by 8% when compared to January 2024.
In the third place was the blue tit when considering the whole country. But in Berlin the hooded crow was on the third position. In Berlin, hooded crow observations increased even by 15%. Germany-wide, however, hooded crows reached only the 34. position. Interestingly, hooded crow observations even decreased by 16% all over Germany.
Do more and more hooded crows concentrate in the Berlin area in future?
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In 2024, more than 130.000 bird lovers participated in the bird count. I hope that next year, again, more people count for this citizen science project. Correspondingly, this year, fewer participants counted fewer birds. Last year participants counted 3,1 million birds. But according to my calculations, the decrease in participants was considered in the statistics.
That means, the trend of the common blackbird indeed points downwards. Germany-wide, common blackbird observations decreased by 18%, in Berlin by 30%. Last year, this trend was not visible, as the number of observations increased in comparison to the previous year, in that case 2023.
By the way, I saw the common blackbird in the following photograph on another day in the Tiergarten of Berlin. There, I spotted already several times common blackbirds with unusual colorations.
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The NABU – a German NGO – made a review of the winter bird count 2025 on their website. If you look at the results on the website of the NABU, you can see that observations of Eurasian tree sparrows (position 10, -23%), starlings (position 14, -35%), European robins (position 18, -32%) seemed to have strongly decreased. Honestly, I have never seen Eurasian tree sparrows in Berlin, but in Brandenburg (photograph on the left). European robins, in contrast, I see them sometimes in winter in Berlin.
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I was a little bit surprised that observations of starlings decreased in comparison to the previous year, because in the last years I see more and more starlings in the Volkspark Friedrichshain. But of course, these are only my observations.
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But there were also winners among the birds in Berlin. For example, the grey goose (position 9, +225%), the fieldfare (position 15, +104%), and the black-headed gull (position 16, +129%). That is interesting, because I have never seen fieldfares in Berlin, but a few grey geese (photograph on the left, not taken in Berlin). I neither have seen a black-headed gull (photograph on the right) so far in Berlin, but other gulls in the centre of Berlin.
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I will keep my eyes open and hope to see one of these birds soon (again). Nevertheless, I very enjoyed participating in the winter bird count 2025.
If you want to know more about my other observations in previous bird counts, please follow one of the links further below. There you can also find links to my previous participations in the bird counts in spring.
More information
Have you participated in the winter bird count 2025? If yes, which birds did you observe? Or do you have other bird observations which you like to share? Please let me know in the comments.
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