More than 420,000 take part in RSPB’S Big Birdwatch

BIRD watchers who braved the chilly conditions earlier this year have revealed a surge in numbers of goldfinches, pictured, and other small garden birds.

More than 420,000 people across the country took part in the RSPB’S annual Big Garden Birdwatch in the last weekend of January, recording 6.7million birds visiting their gardens or local parks.

Sightings of many species were up, despite the wintry start to this year. The mild autumn and winter weather in the run-up to the survey made it easier for those birds to find food than in cold frosty conditions and helped more survive the winter.

Daniel Hayhow, an RSPB conservation scientist, said: “Last summer was a really good year for many breeding birds, with warm weather creating great conditions for many smaller birds to raise their young to adulthood.

“The rise in sightings of goldfinch, long-tailed tit and coal tit, along with chaffinches and greenfinches, goes to show that in the absence of cold weather they can survive the winter months in good numbers.”

The house sparrow was once again the most commonly seen bird in the survey, with starlings in second place again, though both birds have seen long-term declines in numbers seen per garden since the survey began.

Sightings of goldfinches were up 11pc on the previous year, while longtailed tits were up 16pc, coal tits up 15pc, and blue tits up 5pc.

There was also a 5pc rise in sightings of greenfinches, which was welcomed by conservationists as the birds have suffered a 58pc decline since the survey began in 1979.

But there was a fall in the sightings of several species: blackbirds were down 18pc, robins down 12pc, and wrens down 11pc.

However, the milder winter can mean birds are less reliant on garden feeders because there is more food in the countryside, with potentially fewer birds visiting gardens as a result.