Overview
- NABU’s 22nd Hour of Garden Birds, which runs Friday through Sunday, asks people across Germany to count birds for one hour in their garden, a park, or from a balcony.
- The spotlight on finches follows recent local reports of dead chaffinches, bullfinches, and goldfinches found near feeders, where experts suspect Trichomonas parasites spread through shared food and water.
- Organizers urge strict feeder hygiene and ask people to stop spring feeding until next winter to reduce infections, with a preference for tube feeders that keep birds from walking through and fouling food.
- Participants note the highest number of each species seen at one time during the hour and send results via the NABU-Vogelwelt app or stundedergartenvoegel.de by May 18.
- About 58,000 people reported more than 1.1 million birds last year, providing a baseline to spot any finch decline and to guide longer-term steps like planting native hedges and wildflower meadows.