LowCGen

More than half a million people counted birds in their garden for an hour at
the end of January as part of the Big Garden Birdwatch, which was organised
by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

Sparrows, blackbirds and starlings topped the table as usual, but due to the
cold weather there were 20 per cent fewer sightings of small birds like coal
tits.

The UK’s smallest songbird, the goldcrest, also saw their population decimated
with numbers plummeting by three quarters.

The tiny long-tailed tits fell out of the top 10 most spotted garden visitors
altogether this year, with numbers down by more than a quarter since the
2009 survey.

The freezing temperatures have badly affected the small-bodied birds, which
suffer worst from the cold and have to eat almost continuously to stay alive.

Normally found in fields, farmland trees and hedgerows, these countryside
birds will visit gardens when food is scarce in their usual haunts – with
berries, seeds, insects and worms all hard to access under the snow and
frost for weeks at a time this winter.

But a host of new species were spotted in people’s garden for the first time
including blackcaps. Birds normally seen in the countryside like redwings,
fieldfares and mistle thrush also efatured in the count.

Experts believe they were spotted more because they have adjusted their
feeding behaviour to take advantage of food put out on bird tables and
feeders.

Sarah Kelly, Big Garden Birdwatch coordinator, said a lot of the birds only
survived the winter because they were being fed.

“We were particularly concerned for small birds over the winter, asking people
to make sure they kept feeders topped up and supplied fresh water to help
them. These results highlight the importance of feeding and gardening for
wildlife, especially during prolonged cold periods.”

The annual UK count, which took place on the weekend of January 30 and 31,
recorded more than 8.5 million birds of 73 different species in 280,000
gardens across the country.

However the RSPB remain concerned about population numbers over the long term.
In the last five years alone, house sparrows have declined by 17 per cent
and starlings by 14 per cent.

Since 1979, when the survey started, sparrows, starlings, blackbirds and
robins have all seen a decline in part due to habitat loss through
development like concreting over gardens to create parking spaces. Bigger
birds like wood pigeons and collared doves have done well from scraps left
on bird tables.