For most people these graceful aerial acrobats are the harbinger of spring, and according to some they even bring good luck. Fact is though that in the last decades the populations of barn swallows have been in decline in Western and Central Europe.
The elegant great crested grebe has just like the coot and the grey heron gradually made its entrance in the European cities and can now be spotted in parks and rivers, as well as in its natural wetlands.