Following the Winter Bird Count results, natur&ëmwelt has confirmed that the most common winter garden birds in Luxembourg were the Great Tit and the House Sparrow.
The natur&ëmwelt Winter Bird Count took place over the weekend of 30/31 January 2016; weather-wise it was not the best of weekends, with heavy rain and strong winds making feeding difficult for the birds and counting a problem for the observers.
Even so, a total of 820 people or family groups took part and sent in their observations, of which 25 became lucky winners in the prize draw.
The House Sparrow was the commonest species in terms of sheer numbers (5,110 or an average of nine per site). But by no means all sites had House Sparrows (in fact just 74% of them). 90% of gardens, though, had at least one Great Tit (average five per site), making that the commonest species in terms of frequency. Other frequently recorded species were the Blue Tit (observed at 80% of sites) and the Robin (present at 70%).
One bird that definitely did not make it onto anyone’s winter list was the Wryneck – because it was way down in Africa at the time. The Wryneck, though, is Luxembourg’s Bird of the Year 2016. The Wryneck is a little woodpecker, but quite unlike the other woodpeckers you may be familiar with. It is the natur&ëmwelt Bird of the Year 2016, which means it's the focal point of this year's 'School and nature' educational campaign.
Photo by Roland Felten
