14/05/2026
Berlin’s Tiergarten 🌳
Yesterday I spent most of the day in the Tiergarten, Berlin’s largest city park, 520 acres of woodland, glades and ponds, right in the middle of the city.
It’s a busy place, with people commuting, jogging, having picnics, reading books, and (my favourite sight of the day) dancing in pockets of woodland light. In some places it feels like you could be sat in Leazes Park, in others your lost in the trees of Gosforth Nature Reserve.
But the Tiergarten is incredibly different in many ways, especially its wildlife.
As soon as I approached the edge of the Tiergarten from the train, I could hear a Nightingale singing, deep within a patch of tangled Dog Rose, Hawthorn and bramble. It was right by the road, with traffic rushing past so loud you could barely think, but the Nightingale sung above it! (more on the Nightingales of Berlin soon)
The park itself is a mosaic of woodland habitats, large trees, loads of standing deadwood, dense understory, carpeted with woodland flowers, with open parkland glades throughout. Ponds meander through the park in places, connected via culverts to a nearby river.
This variety of woodland habitats, appropriate management, and a respect for biodiversity means it’s absolutely full of species we no longer see regularly in the UK, never mind a city park.
We’ve visited the Tiergarten in winter and autumn, but never Spring, as you walk along the meandering paths it seems birds are singing everywhere. Nightingales belt out from the scrub, alongside Blackcaps, Garden Warbler and Robin, Blackbirds and Song Thrushes sing form the treetops as Swifts scream overhead. Icterine Warblers skulk amongst the leaves, and there’s a constant sound of woodpeckers (both Great and Middle Spotted) calling throughout the woodland.
Berlin is famous for its urban Goshawks, over 100 pairs breed within the city parks! As I stood watching a Middle Spotted Woodpecker bring food to its nest, I heard the unmistakable call of one nearby. I looked up to see two Goshawks, a juvenile and an adult flying low over one of the ponds. The juvenile landed up in the tree opposite me and was swiftly joined by cautious Hooded Crows and Starlings.
It’s not just the birds that are incredible for this city park. Red Squirrels can been seen throughout, existing in their arboreal realm, Rabbits graze in the glades, and Foxes saunter along the paths 🦊 I spotted a couple of usual mammals too, the park is full of Muskrats (an introduced species from North America) similar to a Water Vole but a bit larger, and also Nutria (introduced from South America), which often can be mistaken for a Beaver.
As the sun began to set, I headed down towards one of the ponds where I’d been given some local information that there was a Beaver. As I sat down on the park bench (a scene that was only missing St James Park in the background), 4 Beavers swam past me and began their nightly routines 🦫
Imagine if our city parks could support Goshawks, and Beavers…
- Cain
