Six years ago, numerous blackbirds died in Germany due to a virus. Now the same virus is causing bird deaths again.
In Germany, many blackbirds are currently dying again due to the Usutu virus transmitted by mosquitoes. Around 25 percent of the birds dissected and tested this year were infected with the virus, according to the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg. Since the beginning of the year, more than 120 dead animals have been sent to the Hamburg institute, including blackbirds, thrushes and falcons. In 2023, there were only 100 submissions in the entire year.
Since the beginning of the year, the nature conservation association Nabu has also received reports of more than twice as many sick or dead birds as in the comparable period in 2023. So far, there have been 1,536 reports of 1,806 dead and 1,060 sick blackbirds and other birds on the federal association's reporting page “nabu.de”.
The reports come from all over Germany, but the focus is on Lower Saxony. Almost 800 dead and a good 400 sick blackbirds were reported there. According to Nabu, that was six times more reports in the first half of the year than in the same period in 2023.
NABU bird protection officer Marco Sommerfeld assumes that these numbers are just the beginning and that they will continue to rise significantly. The blackbird deaths could therefore have a devastating effect on the bird population again. “In 2018, for example, the blackbird population in Hamburg fell by around 40 percent. Since then, it has not recovered. This is frightening for such a common species.”
Blackbirds are among the most common birds in Germany. They are the most frequently sighted bird in bird counts, along with tits and sparrows.
The Bernhard Nocht Institute and the Nabu continue to hope for help from the public and that people will report and send in dead and sick animals. In this way, the spread of the virus can be observed, documented and scientifically evaluated.
The Usutu virus is transmitted by local mosquitoes. Infected birds appear sick and apathetic until they die after a few days. The pathogen first caused bird deaths in Germany in 2011. The tropical virus has been occurring in Europe for a good ten years and, according to Nabu, is continuing to spread.
