Overview
- About 145,000 volunteers reported roughly 3.27 million birds from around 102,000 gardens and parks during the January 9–11 survey.
- House Sparrow sightings fell 15% and Tree Sparrow 10% nationwide compared with last year, with steeper drops in Berlin at 45% and 30% respectively.
- NABU and independent statisticians note that frozen small waters likely displaced ducks, geese and swans to larger ice‑free sites, limiting detections in gardens and parks.
- Great tit, blue tit, blackbird, chaffinch and robin were reported more often in many regions despite the overall downturn.
- Regional tallies underline variation: Bavaria averaged 29 birds per garden as LBV cites ongoing habitat and insect losses, Mecklenburg‑Vorpommern averaged 43 versus 54 in 2011, and Thuringia’s House Sparrows declined from 7.20 to 6.28 per garden.