We found this Redstart flitting around a playground in Tiergarten. He appears to be molting. It was quite hot and he seemed to be cooling himself in the dust.
Common Redstart, Molting Male
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Tag Archives: Tiergarten
Back in Berlin
After 9 years I’m back in Berlin for a short visit, this time with my daughter, Athena. We’re staying in the Tiergarten and finding the birds there to be just as interesting as ever. In fact we even have a pigeon family living on our rental balcony! We’ll be posting whatever we find here in the next week. It’s wonderful to be back!
Juvenile Robin in the Englischer Garten
This little robin and his brothers and sisters and cousins were all making quite a ruckus in the Englischer Garten the other day.
He was curious about me, and I was curious about him.
Grooming Crows
My husband took these shots of an adult Hooded Crow grooming an adolescent on an opposite roof the other day. They remind me of being a child and trying to stand patient and still while my mother combed my hair and fussed over my clothes. 
Spotted Flycatcher
After dinner tonight I looked over the balcony and saw this marvelous bird gracefully swooping to catch insects a few feet above the grass. It catches its dinner by repeatedly flying in short loops, taking a brief rest between each loop. It maneuvers wonderfully, flies upside-down and seems to pause mid-air when catching a bug. This is the first Spotted Flycatcher I’ve seen!
Juvenile Moorhen
This juvenile Moorhen was slurping up slime in the Englischer Garten the other day, looking very much like a dinosaur.
Bats on the Balcony
Trying to photograph birds will drive any sane person mad, but photographing bats is pure madness. Every evening at dusk a stream of bats flies out of a small opening above our drainpipe. The bats fly in large circles around the yard and even circle through our balcony area, driving our cat wild. Last night I was mad enough to try to capture one, so I stood on the balcony for some time, shooting randomly into the dark in the hopes that one of these swift creatures would happen to be flying across my viewfinder. And I caught some! They are blurry, but they are mine.
I suppose that I am so used to seeing the sleek bodies of birds in my viewfinder that I was a little shocked when I saw the images I captured. They truly are winged mice flying through the night! While standing so close to them as they flew out I noticed that they made swishing sounds, as if their wings were made of satin.
Unfortunately I don’t know anything about bat identification, so I can’t tell you what species these are. If anyone has any hints, please let me know.
Hungry little Robin
This juvenile robin was waiting so patiently under the ferns for someone to come and feed him.
The proud parent!
Goshawk in the Tiergarten
After so many days of rain I was so happy to finally have the chance to wander through the Tiergarten this afternoon. In my search for shy creatures I found a shady clearing where I could photograph this little chaffinch undisturbed by dogs and bicycles.
At the edge of the clearing a blackbird was belting it out as usual, his song mixing with that of a very loud blackcap and a few other blackbirds in the area. I was snapping away when all of a sudden the chaffinch was missing from my viewfinder, the blackcap was quiet, and the blackbirds’ songs changed to a series of short, high pitched notes.
The sound reminded me of something, and I remembered this post that I read the other day describing the call that American Robins make when a hawk is nearby. This gave me the brilliant idea that I should stop staring at the barren ground through the viewfinder, remove my face from the back of the camera, and look up. And lo and behold…
right above me was a Northern Goshawk. It only stayed for a few seconds before flying off as silently as it arrived. The blackbirds immediately returned to their loud songs, but I couldn’t find my chaffinch again.
Bathing Jay
Contemplating a bath…
Losing balance
First the head…
then the rest.
After this, the jay flew into a nearby tree to preen and dry off.