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The Collins Bird Guide, 3rd edition

10,000 Birds

The Collins Bird Guide covers Europe, North Atlantic islands, much of North Africa and the Middle East. may be more usual for northern Europe? Forget occasional escapees, there is an established feral population successfully breeding in the north of Germany, which was 131 birds strong last year.

Europe 253
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Baby Mute Swans – “immutabilis” morph

10,000 Birds

Its natural range in Europe was restricted the the surroundings of the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, and in Asia it ranged from Asia Minor to central China. Contradicting this relentless shooting were efforts to establish feral populations in many regions of Europe, both within and outside its natural range.

Feral 169
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The Rose-ringed Parakeets of Heidelberg

10,000 Birds

Here in Germany, we don’t wish we had. Yes, Germany has parrots, or parakeets to be more precise. Unlike North America, Germany has never had naturally occurring psittacines that went extinct, and the one we have is a true and complete invasive alien introduction. Because we never have had.

Germany 244
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The Gawky Guillemot

10,000 Birds

However, one of the little sweet candies Germany still enjoys today from its own disastrous colonial past is the Common Guillemot, or Common Murre. Germany has only one high seas island it calls its own, the mighty (from a birding perspective) island of Heligoland. km²) in the German Bight, approximately 70 km off the coast of Germany.

Germany 100
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The Domestic Turkey and the First Thanksgiving

10,000 Birds

Some time after the Spanish encounter with the Turkey, birds were brought back to Europe where they were raised and became an important source of food and fancy feathers. Dates of first arrival listed by Schorger (1966) are: Italy 1520, Germany 1530, France 1538, England 1541, Denmark and Norway 1550, Sweden 1556. According to R.D.

Turkey 201
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The Charge of the Egyptian Goose

10,000 Birds

When I started birding in earnest during the 1980s in south-west Germany, no one talked about Egyptian Geese. During the early 1990s, rumours surrounding the occurrence of a few Egyptian Geese in far north-western Germany emerged, the result of an increasing and spreading Dutch feral population. This was great! I was in shock.

Germany 150