birding...

With 1.7 million inhabitants, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany and one of the 16 German federal states. Economically and culturally, Hamburg is also the centre of Northern Germany with a metropolitan population of 3.5 million people. With 755 square kilometres, the city area is seven times larger than Paris and over twice as large as London. Some 14% of the city area is made up of green spaces and recreational areas providing a number of different habitat forms for urban birds. The city has more than 160 breeding bird species with an annual average of 4000,000 breeding pairs. In addition many migrants visit Hamburg on passage or use the city and its environs as a stopover. This is fostered by a diverse landscape (marsh, sandy coastal moorland, low-lying river courses and freshwater mudflats. Some 8 % of the city area consists of nature reserves, 28 in all, of which 8 are designated EU SPAs. Recent successes have been the resettlement of a Peregrine Falcon pair on a city cooling tower and the occupation of a giant crane facility by a large colony of House Martins.