Partridge named Germany’s Bird of the Year 2026

It’s a great day to be a partridge, the festive season is just around the corner and you’ve been named Bird of the Year 2026. What a time to be alive.

Germany chooses Bird of the Year 2026

184.000 people in Germany have voted for the partridge to be named Bird of the Year for 2026, according to the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) and the State Union for Bird and Nature Protection in Bavaria.

The partridge is around 30 centimetres long, a bit bigger than a large pigeon, typically has beautiful orange-brown feathers on its face and body, and striped feathers on its wings. The red-legged partridge, however, is perhaps the most recognisable type of partridge, with a white face and bright red beak.

Partridges can be found all over the world, but between 1980 and 2015, the European population decreased by around 90 percent. In 1999, there were between 56.000 and 91.000 breeding pairs in Germany; today there are only between 35.000 and 61.000 pairs.

The partridge's natural habitat, wooded areas with bushes, field edges and fallow land needed to rummage for bugs and worms to eat, has come under greater threat in recent years, from intensive farming and pesticide use.

Apart from being endangered, the partridge may have benefited from an appeal made on the seventh-most popular podcast in Germany, Fest und Flauschig. Host Olli Schulz told listeners of fond memories of his grandfather's partridges and implored them to vote for the bird.

Blackbird and long-eared owl were runners-up for 2026

The blackbird (49.011 votes) and the long-eared owl (23.352 votes) were the other bird species in the top three running to be named Bird of the Year 2026. In 2024, many blackbirds fell victim to the usutu virus, alongside thrushes and hawks, but the bird is not endangered in Germany.

The long-eared owl, with its consistently startled look, makes its home in abandoned crows nests of German woodlands, according to NABU. It is particularly common in Brandenburg and also isn’t endangered in Germany.