BIRD WATCHING
Which birds are you most likely to see in the UK?
WRENS are the most common birds in the UK, with robins, sparrows and pigeons all likely to be common sights.
The latest Avian Population Estimates Panel paper gives an estimate of the size of different bird populations in the UK.
Covering 249 different breeding species, the researchers estimate there are 85 million breeding pairs across the UK.
That’s a similar number to the last time the estimate was done in 2013.
Some types of bird are much more common than others - 21 species have estimates exceeding one million pairs, making up 81% of the total bird population.
The most common were wrens (with 11.0 million pairs), robins (7.4 million), house sparrows (5.3 million) and woodpigeons (5.2 million).
The populations of these species are broadly stable but others have seen big increases or decreases in numbers in recent years.
The report from the British Trust for Ornithology said there were an estimated 75,000 pairs of turtle doves in the UK in 1997, but even the new estimate of 3,600 pairs in 2016 may already be too high, given their ongoing decline.
Similarly, the updated estimate for Spotted Flycatcher is just 41,500 pairs in 2016, down from 130,000 pairs in 1988–91.
However, in contrast, there were just 160 pairs of Red Kite in 1995 but, following the successful reintroduction scheme, the latest estimate is 4,400 pairs.
One way the number of birds is monitored is through the Breeding
Bird Survey, where volunteers record the number and type of birds in areas across the UK.
For the 2019 survey, 2,766 volunteers covered 4,005 1km squares across the UK, walking 14,996km in the process.
Squares were home to an average of 30 species - the square with the most bird species was near Ashton Keynes, south of Cirencester with 72.
The most widespread bird species were, unsurprisingly, woodpigeons and wrens, both found in 90% of all squares surveyed.
The bird species most rarely recorded were the golden pheasant, great bustard, stonecurlew and water pipit.