For the third time, people were allowed to vote on the "Bird of the Year". The winner gets the title in absentia because he flew south to spend the winter long ago. In general, it has become rare in Baden-Württemberg, the reasons for this are well known.
Berlin/Stuttgart (dpa/lsw) - 2 "In 1950, around 5,000 breeding pairs were still living with us," said Nabu bird expert Stefan Bosch on Thursday. In 1990 there were still around 1,500. Today there are still 200 to 320 pairs nationwide. Half of them breed at the Federsee, with the focus also being on the Upper Rhine, in the southern Black Forest and on the Swabian Jura. "It's dramatic," said Bosch, according to the announcement.
"We have tirelessly deprived birds such as the whinchat of habitat and food and are still doing so," explained the expert. Fallow land has been built over, fields and meadows are often mowed and fertilized for animal feed. "Recreational use sometimes disturbs the birds when breeding," explained Bosch. Although the causes and needs are known, the decline in field and meadow birds, which are 12 to 14 centimeters in size, continues unabated.
"With the help of a state-wide meadow and ground breeding program, we could ensure that the whinchat rediscovers all of Baden-Württemberg as its homeland," said Nabu state boss Johannes Enssle. He called on the state government to keep its promise from the coalition agreement and to provide the necessary funds for the program in the upcoming budget. "Six million euros are needed. It should be worth it to us to save an endangered species and with it many other species."
The Whinchat gets its name from its brown-orange chest and throat. It spends the winter south of the Sahara. Already in September it started the journey of more than 5000 kilometers. It returns north again in April.
In the election for "Bird of the Year", the whinchat prevailed with around 43 percent of the votes by a large margin against tree sparrows, red-backed shrikes, pied flycatchers and moorhens, as announced by Nabu Germany and the Bavarian State Association for Bird and Nature Conservation on Thursday. In 1987 the songbird carried the title before.
It is the third time that the two nature conservation organizations have called for the election of the bird of the year. Nabu and LBV have been choosing this since 1971, but in the past it was the experts who chose the bird. Now they only make a preselection. Almost 135,000 people took part in the online election this year.
