Birding around Frankfurt Airport: Bad Soden

Frankfurt Airport (FRA) is the gateway to continental Europe. Many airlines use the Airport as a hub for connecting flights all over the world. If you have spare time between two flight and you are a birdwatcher, you might be interested to know, where you can find good places to stretch your legs, enjoy fresh air and enjoy birding for typical european birds.

One of these sites is the hilly countryside around Bad Soden. The state (Bundesland) of Hessen still supports a comparatively large number of mixed orchard meadows where the Little Owl (Athene noctua) is a relatively common bird. After North-Rhine Westphalia, Hessen has the largest Little Owl population in Germany.

Bad Soden is located on the southern slope of the Taunus mountains, 15 km north-west of Frankfurt and 20 kilometers northeast of Wiesbaden and 10km south of the highest summit of the Taunus, the Grosser Feldberg. Although a wealthy suburb of the city of Frankfurt a high percentage of the area (15%) is forested. The altitude ranges between 130 m above sea level (asl) and 385 m asl.

The landscape of the so-called Vordertaunus is very scenic and host some excellent birds, which are quite hard to see in other more northern parts of Germany as e.g. European Honey-buzzard(Pernis apivorus), Red Kite (Milvus milvus), Stock Pigeon (Columba oenas), Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), Eurasian Eagle-Owl (Bubo bubo), Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos minor ), Middle Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos medius), Eurasian Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis), Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio), Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus), Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella ), Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) or the European Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) shown in the image above.

There are other places in nearrer surroundings but access is a bit tricky. Please contact via the contact form if I can give further directions or even guide you. Please leave a valid e-mail-adress, so  I can respond to you!!

 

2 comments

  1. I was sipping my morning coffee when what I believe was a spotted eagle landed in the oak tree in front of my house. Is that possible? I live in Nordend in Frankfurt and am wondering if there have been other spotted eagle sightings in Frankfurt.

    Many thanks for an answer,
    Scott

    1. Hallo Scott,
      spotted eagle, probably you mean lesser spotted eagle, what be really – what the Englishmen call a mega for Frankfurt. Did you check with the Image database on bird-lens.com. Do you have a Picture taken – maybe with you Smartphone? I only know of eagles etc. from the falconey on the Grosser Feldberg. But I only saw Tawny Eagle up there. Maybe you have more Details for me…..
      Cheers
      Johannes

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