Join in the Big Garden Birdwatch
THE world’s largest garden wildlife survey is back – and the RSPB has begun its annual search for families to get involved.
The charity says it wants as many people as possible to join in January’s Big Garden Birdwatch, checking and counting the UK’S feathered friends.
More than a million people took part in 2021, counting 17 million birds – making it the biggest Birdwatch ever – and this year it is hoping to top that.
Beccy Speight, the RSPB’S chief executive, says: “We were blown away by the enthusiasm with which people took part in the Birdwatch in 2021.
“We know that for many people, garden birds provide an important connection to the wider natural world and bring enormous joy.
“Over the last year, there has been a much-needed realisation that nature is an important and necessary part of our lives, especially for our mental health and wellbeing. But nature needs us too.
“By taking part in the Birdwatch, families are helping to build an annual snapshot of how our birdlife is doing, and it’s only by us understanding how our wildlife is faring that we can protect it.”
A recent study has uncovered the stark facts that more than a quarter of UK bird species are under serious threat, with familiar species such as swifts and greenfinches joining those most at risk, experts have warned.
Some 70 of the UK’S 245 assessed birds are “red-listed” – meaning they are of highest conservation concern because of severe declines, numbers well below historical levels or the risk of global extinction, a new assessment shows.
The latest update to the UK red list for birds, carried out by a coalition of the UK’S leading bird conservation organisations, is longer than it has ever been, with the figure nearly double what it was in the first assessment in 1996. The survey looked at 245 species regularly occurring in the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man and categorises them as red, amber or green-listed depending on how threatened they are considered to be.
Newly red-listed species include swifts, house martins, the ptarmigan, purple sandpiper, Montagu’s harrier and greenfinch, the report by groups including the British Trust for Ornithology, RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and National Trust warns.
Overall, the red list has grown by three species since the last assessment in 2015, with 11 more birds red-listed, but six moved to amber and two no longer assessed.
Farmland and upland birds have seen no improvement in their “worrying plight”, with more red-listed in the latest assessment.
Swifts have moved from the amber list to red in the face of a 58% drop in their populations since 1995 and house martins join them due to a 57% fall since 1969, joining other birds which migrate to sub-saharan Africa such as cuckoos and nightingales.
Greenfinches have gone from green-listed to the red list following a 62% population crash since 1993 due to a severe outbreak of the disease trichomonosis, a parasitic disease that can be spread by contaminated food and water.
The experts also raised concerns over wildfowl and wader populations which spend the winter in the UK, such as Bewick’s swans, the goldeneye and dunlin, which have joined the red list, with pressures including illegal hunting abroad, ingesting lead ammunition and climate change.
Leach’s storm-petrel and kittiwakes are among the birds on the red list threatened with global extinction. In better news, successful reintroduction projects have helped the white-tailed eagles – which became extinct in the UK as breeding birds more than a century ago – move off the red list onto the amber listing.
The song thrush, pied flycatcher and grey wagtail have been moved from red to amber.
Colonisation of the UK by new birds – much of it down to human-induced climate change – has seen five new species including the great white egret, cattle egret and black-winged stilt added to the latest review.
The 2022 Big Garden Birdwatch event takes place on January 28-30 and everyone taking part is asked to spend one hour watching and recording the birds in their garden, balcony or local park, and send their results to the RSPB.
That one hour every year, for the last four decades, has made the Big Garden Birdwatch the largest garden wildlife citizen science project.
The house sparrow has remained at the top of the Big Garden Birdwatch rankings as the most commonly seen garden bird with 2.6 million sighted in 2021 – down by 58% since the Birdwatch began in 1979. The blue tit and starling completed the top three, with starlings down by 83%.
Beccy adds: “Whether you see one blackbird, 20 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.”
For a free Big Garden Birdwatch guide, which includes a bird ID chart, tips for your birdwatch, and advice on attracting wildlife to your garden, text BIRD to 70030 or visit rspb.org.uk/birdwatch