Birdwatching in German: 38 birds and their names

Last month we spent just over a week in Germany. We attended a wedding, spent some time in Dortmund where I studied many years ago and spent a few days in Schüttorf, my hometown. As always, when in Schüttorf, we walked through our favourite forest, the Bentheimer Wald to our favourite bench, the Baumelbank

It was again a very enjoyable walk, and this time I also spotted an interesting information board about native birds – einheimische Vögel.

Some of them are ‘Jahresvögel’ – resident birds: bird species that remain in a given area year-round.
Others are ‘Sommervögel’ – summer birds: found in a given geographical area only during the summer months.

My knowledge of birds isn’t particularly great. How about yours?
Especially, how many German words for birds do you recognise?

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Here are all the birds mentioned. Have you heard of any of them?
You’ll get the answers below the image.

• der Eichelhäher – jay
• der Kolkrabe – raven
• der Star – starling
• der Grauschnäpper – spotted flycatcher
• die Tannenmeise – coal tit
• der Kernbeißer – hawfinch
• die Singdrossel – song thrush
• die Amsel – blackbird
• der Pirol – oriole
• der Trauerschnäpper – pied flycatcher
• die Weidenmeise – willow tit
• der Gimpel – bullfinch
• die Haubenmeise – crested tit
• der Gartenrotschwanz – redstart
• die Nachtigall – nightingale
• das Rotkehlchen – robin
• die Sumpfmeise – marsh tit
• die Kohlmeise – great tit
• die Haubenmeise – crested tit
• der Buchfink – chaffinch
• der Bergfink – brambling
• der Fitis – willow warbler
• der Waldlaubsänger – wood warbler
• der Zilpzalp – chiffchaff
• der Baumpieper – tree pipit
• die Blaumeise – blue tit
• der Kleiber – nuthatch
• die Schwanzmeise – long-tailed tit
• der Birkenzeisig – birch siskin
• die Mönchsgrasmücke – blackcap
• die Heckenbraunelle – dunnock
• das Wintergoldhähnchen – goldcrest
• das Sommergoldhähnchen – summer goldcrest
• der Waldbaumläufer – tree creeper
• der Gartenbaumläufer – garden tree creeper
• der Fichtenkreuzschnabel – red crossbill
• der Zaunkönig – wren
• der Zeisig – siskin

How did you do? When I researched the names I found out that I did recognise a lot of the English names but not the German ones. I’ve clearly been living too long in the UK!
As for the birds themselves, how many did I recognise? Don’t ask 🤭

Hopfully, you did better than me!

If you are an enthusiastic bird watcher, what can you do with these words to remember them?

You can bookmark this post or make a vocabulary list with them. You can do that with any paper or electronic notebook. Or you could buy my notebook which I designed specially for German vocab learners. It has space for vocabulary lists and sentences. You can even choose one of two colours 😉

Red notebook Orange notebook