The Nightingale is not an urban bird like the Sparrow or swift. Nevertheless, there are in any other major European city, as many breeding pairs per square kilometre in Berlin.
Some of the participants have their bird-lexicon and torches brought, others want to listen to this evening, just the enchanting vocals. The seven-member group, led by the Ornithologist, Kim Mortega, does not have to go far into the Tiergarten, to the first nighty loszwitschern Gallen.
“Are You Listening? It is a Battle-Rap,” says Mortega. In the case of nightingales, the roles are clear: Only the males sing, mainly at night to attract females.
Berlin, with 1300 to 1700 hatching a relatively high Nightingale-Population pairs. And it grows according to the Berlin nature conservation authority about six percent annually. Actually, the Nightingale nests in field margins or in bushes on the ground. Prefer to be in dense undergrowth, raspberry and BlackBerry bushes, between nettles and hops vines.
Her Nest she builds out of old Leaves and dry grasses. But why are the birds in Berlin are looking for? “We believe that the nightingales are coming because of the unkempt lawns and overgrown Parks to Berlin,” says the biologist Silke Voigt-Heucke.
The Tiergarten: Berlin is not in the ranking of the greenest city in Germany, but a with a lot of unkempt and overgrown green areas, which offers the nightingales to a good home.
The perfect home: Orphaned Parks, feral S-Bahn lines
Surprisingly, you will find many sites that meet your needs, even along the overgrown S-Bahn routes or on the city motorway. Why the nightingales build their nests better in the zoo than in the Franconian forest, will Voigt, Silke-F. lips project team of “research the case of the Nightingale” at the Berlin Museum of natural history to find out.
The nightingales fly areas in mid-April from Africa back to their German breeding. From an estimated 95,000 in the whole of Germany, around 3000 of the little singers come every year to Berlin.
The Nightingale, or Luscinia megarhynchos, is often confused with its Schwesterart, the Sprosser. Nightingales are small and inconspicuous, but if you chmettern loss, you can hardly believe that a 16-centimeter-long bird can muster as much voting strength and endurance. There are shots in which males are up to 20 hours by singing. Her diverse singing of the Nightingale in the world to one of the main symbols of romantic love, and writers from ancient times to today, inspired. “It was the Nightingale and not the lark..” claims about Juliet In Shakespeare’s romantic drama, in order to extend your tryst with Romeo.
The Nightingale: lithograph by Theodor Hosemann (1863). Roses and nightingales, were already in the middle ages, popular allegories of love and passion.
“The poets, the words now to describe your emotions when you listen to a Nightingale,” says biologist Sarah Darwin, a descendant of the famous biologist Charles Darwin. “A lot of people have heard more stories about the Nightingale singing.” Darwin is part of the team “research the case of the Nightingale”.
She is fascinated for years by the compositions of the small virtuoso. “The Nightingale sings in the verses, and each sounds a bit different,” she says Interview with DW. The males have average of 180 verse types in your Repertoire. “This makes the bird one of the most versatile singer ever.”
Citizens research
And for a pop star of its kind. The science is used. “The Nightingale is a perfect entry-level species, to inspire people back to nature,” says the biologist. The staff at the Museum of natural history have developed a free Smartphone App called nature view. With one click users can record anonymous bird songs and with the database of the project parts. In 2018, there was already a call for Berlin. This year, he applies for the whole of Germany.
Once the images are received, they are tracked and time stamped. An algorithm then examines whether it really is a Nightingale. The Ornitholog want to sites on the basis of the data and the preferred breeding and the importance of the Nightingale-songs of investigate as well as regional dialects to detect. The user can then access the songs on an interactive map.
And what is the special Berlin nightingales-snout? A lot of main city dwellers want to even have electronic Beats from the bird’s concert. “Yes, it is Techno sounds definitely more Techno than Paganini,” says Sarah Darwin. “The singing is not very melodic, but powerful and determined.”
And so the little bird is also very good against the noise of the city. “We believe that you ansingen against the noise, but that is a theory that has yet to be proven,” says Silke Voigt-Heucke. According to the theory of evolution is even plausible, because the fitter you are and the louder the males are, the better chance you have of reproductive.
The male has found a female, takes care of the Pair to the nest and stay together at least until the breeding season is over. The nightly love songs transform into more aggressive territory song.
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Deadwood is full of lifeDead on the Rhine – all-natural
A hybrid poplar stem is located at the Bonn-based Bank of the Rhine, to rare insect species to attract. Some of the beetles are dependent on thick stems, which rot slowly, because their larvae need up to five years to develop. Poplars can tolerate Flooding, while they tolerate drought poorly. Old and sick trees will be replaced by location-fair oaks and ash trees.
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Deadwood is full of lifeThe lumberjacks have been forgotten!
Group together stacked deadwood tribes have for bird life in the forests of very high ecological value. The Buzzard uses shafts of light to hunt smaller mammals. The cuckoo searches for host nests.
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Deadwood is full of lifeDeadwood is part of the forest
The beech forest in the Müritz national Park-Serahn allowed to develop as nature wants it. Two percent of the land area of Germany is supposed to grow, without the interference of man. The process is intended to promote the diversity of species, because two-thirds of all forest birds rely on dead wood. It serves as food, habitat, breeding space and communication space.
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Deadwood is full of lifeCrazy, hardworking, dominant
The woodpecker pecks insects from the bark. And with his sharp Beak, he undermines tribes, to disappear completely. Other cave inhabitants, such as fir tit, stock dove, squirrels, dormice, woodland and bats benefit from the work of the “carpenter of the woods”. He, too, hammers on wood, and all others to make it clear: “This is my territory!”
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Deadwood is full of lifeStruck by lightning
A Thunderstorm had hit the spruce up to the Mark. Rotten Branches and trunks can be life-falling for recreationists and forest workers dangerous. Therefore, this specimen has been sawn on and off of the path to the disintegration of the nature.
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Deadwood is full of lifeOnce upon a time…
…a stately tree. However, this deadwood, stem was soaked from the rain and already shows clear signs of decomposition by precipitation, small animals and fungi.
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Deadwood is full of lifeDread Glutton
The bark beetle is the worst animal of the forest is a destroyer. The insect infests trees that have become of extreme drought and heat unstable. Climate change will promote the propagation of the pest, Ecologists certain. Infested trees are recognizable by the chips of bark or the dust that is around the trunk. Older deadwood is populated by bark beetle.
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Deadwood is full of lifeSign language, or art on the tree?
Here, bark beetles or other insects were at work, to identify clearly the Eating and breeding bark picture under the Tree. Created rammel chambers, the mother and larval corridors, which gave the tribe a characteristic shape.
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Deadwood is full of lifeMystical, morbid, rotten
At first glance, dying or dead wood gives the impression of Offense and decay. And yet, countless birds, insects, fungi, and plant-life of this process. And it shows: Nothing remains as it was.
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Deadwood is full of lifeOf Progressive Decay
Hacked, full of holes, overgrown with moss, urban sprawl, and other Branches, and Foliage covered. Here, birds, rodents, worms, snails and mushrooms have done all the work. The tree is visible in its original structure.
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Deadwood is full of lifeWhere forces long exercise…
…because even large trees will be razed to the ground. Fungi make the largest contribution in the forest Ecosystem. You degrade Lignin and to include Cellulose. So nutrient can develop a rich Humus fertilizer for new growth. Researchers in Leipzig found that in deadwood more than 1200 species of fungi live with bacteria and invertebrates form a community.
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Deadwood is full of lifeSplash of color camouflaged among dead wood
Adult salamanders feed mainly on snails, slugs, Centipedes, sow bugs, ear worms and ground beetles. And you’ll find among the foliage layers and in dry woods wetter forests. In between the nocturnal reptiles hide in caves and crevices of dead trees.
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Deadwood is full of lifeObstacle on the water highway
Flow straightening has increased the speed of the flow of waters. Many fish have been lost in this way and your life. Deadwood in the river changes the flow conditions, creates resting areas and hiding places. Snails and mayflies find food before they are eaten by fish. For the promotion of biodiversity, not beaver, but nature lay protectors of the trees into the water.
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Deadwood is full of lifeLife and death – a cycle
Trees store CO2 from the atmosphere. In the fight against the greenhouse effect, the forest plays a crucial role. A tree is felled, it is taken from the wood, the carbon contained in the forest ecosystem. The weather and living organisms decompose the tree in front of the place, is formed in the deadwood, once again carbon. And reach in humus form back into the ground.
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Deadwood is full of lifeQuiet zone for human – habitat for insects
Deadwood in the Bonn Rheinaue. A sight that the visitors of the Park still need to get used to. This specimen has been discovered by the student from Madagascar. She uses the warming wood as the spring sun Bank.
The Biggest Risk: Habitat Loss
The population in Germany is not endangered. The nature protection Federation Germany (NABU) estimates that the Nightingale Population at about 95,000 Nightingale couples. In Europe there are an estimated 4.2 to 11.6 million breeding pairs. Since the 1990-s the German stock remains, with some fluctuations, in principle, stable.
In some regions of Europe, but the Situation is critical. In the UK, where is down, the Nightingale Population within the last 50 years by 90 percent. There are as yet no clear scientific explanations, only a few notes. “Certainly the intensive agriculture plays in the UK a crucial role,” says Voigt-Heucke in the DW-Interview. The Birdwatcher, there is no other Region in Europe, in the the nightingales Population so greatly reduced.
In addition, there is a very deer, the abknabbere the low bushes, and therefore potential nesting sites of nightingales destroy. But in this country, the Population of the nocturnal singer is not anywhere stable. So many lives have been lost due to intensive agriculture and forestry in Northern Bavaria, Germany in the past years, the spaces for the nightingales. “We also need to pay attention in Germany and which habitats to protect so that we can listen to your beautiful singing in 100 years,” says Silke Voigt-Heucke.
Therefore, the biologists want to give the inside of the “research case Nightingale” your Knowledge of nightingales and as many people as possible to encourage them to discover the biological diversity around yourself – even in the middle of Berlin.
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The wild greater RHEAS from GermanyNumber of RHEAS went back
This grumpy-looking wild greater Rhea lives with his fellows in the border area between Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The area in which the animals live, has increased, but the inventory is shrinking. In the spring of 362 RHEAS were counted, 2018 there were 566 birds.
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The wild greater RHEAS from GermanyAt home in South America
The greater Rhea is a bird species from South America. Can’t fly it. It is found, for example, in Argentina, Brazil or Urugay. The Population in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania comes from the RHEAS, which are gotten out nearly 20 years ago by a Nandufarm in the vicinity of Lübeck.
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The wild greater RHEAS from GermanyFree hunting
Since the drilled eggs have not achieved the desired success, received two farmers 2018 in addition, a derogation for the hunting. They were in total shoot 20 animals. Basically, RHEAS are protected by the cites agreement.
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The wild greater RHEAS from GermanyCrop damage by greater RHEAS contain
For some, a nice photo motif, for others a nuisance, especially to farmers in the Region have to contend with the RHEAS. They complain about crop damage, mainly oilseed rape and wheat are affected. Since the animals are mostly unimpressed by scarecrows and Co, have farmers and conservationists 2018 pierced around 190 Nandueier, in order to reduce the number of Chicks.
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The wild greater RHEAS from GermanyThe RHEAS are invasive?
The Population of the birds is shrinking. However, only farmers do not consider the wild greater RHEAS as a Problem. MV-Minister of agriculture Till Backhaus (SPD) wants to check whether it is Nandu an invasive species – whether its spread “rooms have a negative impact on domestic life, species, or Ecosystems”.