Birding in Berlin

by Mike Stiles

Guten tag.  I'm writing this from a sixth floor flat overlooking the Kreuzberg region of Berlin. I can see at least six church steeples, some with clock faces and one with a copper dome, rising over the sea of red roofs.  The large, dark Common Swifts dive quickly through my field of view. The Fernsehturm, a TV tower just over 1200 feet tall, is Berlin's tallest structure and seems very much out of place.

Berlin is an amazing city, but the hustle and bustle was a little overwhelming at first for this small town man. I saw one intersection where five streets met with not a stop sign among them, taxi drivers that don't really care what color the stoplights are, and I quickly learned that pedestrians never have the right of way.

There is graffiti on every flat surface juxtaposed with incredible renaissance architecture and fountains, palaces filled with works of art, markets where German is spoken with a Turkish accent, and throngs of people everywhere, of every persuasion. Toto, I'm not in Los Osos anymore.

Luckily, the public transit is said to be the finest in the world, and I'm getting a little better at the language. I can very adequately tell the waiter I would like another Hefeweizen, please.

My wife would tell you we are here to visit our daughter and take in the sights, and those are good things, but I would add that I am here to bird. Getting off the Ubahn (subway) and pulling our luggage through the streets, and hearing the loud, warbling tones of the Blackbird from several trees in every block, put a smile on my face.

Germany's Blackbird is actually a thrush, their kinglets are called Goldcrests, our chickadees are their tits, what we call hawks are buzzards, and as for the warblers, I couldn't tell them apart if they were in my hand. I'm convinced the authors of my European field guide used the same warbler painting for a dozen different species.

Hawfinch

Berlin happens to have many acres of parkland — volksparks — in its borders and they are quite rewarding for birding. They are heavily wooded and some are large enough to get lost in. Easily accessed by foot or the rail system, the parks offer a respite from the bustle of the city.

Great Tit

The Tiergarten is the largest city park in the world, although closed because President Obama happened to be visiting Berlin the week I arrived.

The most exciting thing for me was,  except for the House Sparrows and Starlings in their native habitat, every bird was a life bird. Even more than that I felt like a rank beginner at times. I do have some skills after 40 years of birding, but I found birds that I had no idea where they might fit in the field guide, and I had to do what every beginner must do — thumb through the pages until I found it.

I've seen Chaffinch and Hawfinch and Greenfinch, but am still waiting for Bullfinch, ticked off four species of tits and two of redstarts (another thrush), added Great-spotted Woodpecker, and Short-toed Woodcreeper, Garden Warbler and many others. It's worth looking these up in your own time.

I've preached to beginners in this column to look at the bird in question as long as they can before resorting to the field guide. When I saw my first treecreeper, I followed my own rules and looked at every field mark I could see, and for as long as the bird was in my sight. It turned out there are two almost identical treecreepers, which are best separated by call. Fortunately, they are a common bird and I remembered to pay attention to the song the next time.

At one point I couldn't resort to the field guide simply because there were three life birds in my field of view, and I just couldn't look away to get my book out. Not a terrible problem to have, in my opinion, and it renewed an excitement in birding that had been missing for a while. I recommend traveling to foreign countries for just that reason.

The Alte National Galerie in Berlin

Burrowing Owl on Banner by Cleve Nash

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