RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch: Charity asks people to help

The RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch has been taking place for more than 40 years and is aimed at understanding how the birdlife of the UK is doing.

The bird conservation charity's annual count is the world's largest garden wildlife survey and highlights the winners and losers in the garden bird world.

By counting the numbers of birds that land in people's gardens this weekend, the data will help conservationists understand what more can be done to protect certain species.

Why is this study important?

More than a million people took part in 2021, counting 17 million birds. This made it the biggest birdwatch ever!

Now in its 43rd year, more than 150 million birds have been counted giving the charity an enormous amount of information into which birds are doing well, and which might be struggling.

People are being encouraged to go outside for an hour and count the number of birds they see in their garden, local park, or from a balcony or window.

"It is only by understanding how our wildlife is faring that we can protect it. We know that nature is in crisis but together, we can take action to solve the problems facing nature", said RSPB's Chief Exec Beccy Speight.

The house sparrow remained at the top of the Big Garden Birdwatch rankings as the most commonly seen bird in the UK, with 2.6 million sightings recorded in 2021.

While these species are the most commonly sighted birds and the results sound impressive, unfortunately the data shows that numbers of birds have in fact dropped quite a lot since the Birdwatch began in 1979.

House sparrows are the top ranked UK bird spotted in gardens but their numbers are still in decline

House sparrows numbers are down 58% while starlings are down 83%. Blue tits appear to be doing a bit better, up 9%.

The only way to really know what is happening is to count them so the charity wants members of the public to help out.

How can people get involved?

The Birdwatch is taking place this from Friday 28 January and across the weekend.

People are being asked to watch all the birds in their garden or local park for just one hour at some point during the three days.

They should only count the birds that land, not the ones that fly overhead, and make a note of the different species they see.

They are being asked to record the highest number of birds of each species seen together in the hour. Not the total seen to avoid some birds getting counted more than once.

The RSPB is providing an ID sheet to help identify the most common garden birds.

Then people can record their results online.

"Whether you saw one blackbird, twenty starlings or no birds whatsoever, it is really valuable information as it helps us build a picture of how our garden birds are faring from one year to the next," says Speight.

There is also a Big School's Birdwatch which is taking place during the whole first half of spring term.