The humble house sparrow is Devon’s top bird, with the blue tit and blackbird close behind. Nearly 19,000 people in the county took part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch earlier this year, and across the country there was good news for jays and greenfinches.
This year nearly 700,000 people across the UK took part, counting over 11 million birds. House Sparrows retained the top spot nationally, with Jays flying an astonishing nine spots in the scoreboard.
Big Garden Birdwatch is the largest wildlife survey in the world and gives RSPB scientists insight into the situation of garden birds. Now in its 43rd year, it’s a chance for people of all ages to count the number of birds that visit their garden.
Read more: Devon’s most popular birds revealed as garden survey brings good news for endangered species
In the UK, Jay moved up nine places to number 23, a 73% increase on the 2021 figures. Each autumn jays, a colorful member of the crow family, can often be seen flying in both sense to find and hide acorns to help them through the winter. These then hide in the cracks and crevices of the trees, but also in the dead leaves on the ground. An individual jay can store around 8,000 acorns each year and many remain buried to become oak trees.
RSPB chief executive Beccy Speight said: “We don’t know the reasons for the sudden increase in jay sightings this year. This may be due to food availability as we have reports that the last year has been poor in acorns but whatever the reason a sighting of this magnificent bird is enough to lift the spirits of any day of the year, not to mention a gloomy January weekend.
“It was great to see so many people participating again this year, taking the time to observe and reconnect with the birds, and then generously submitting their observations to help RSPB scientists better understand how our birds are doing. of garden.”
Big Garden Birdwatch results also revealed a slight increase in the greenfinch compared to 2021. This gives scientists a glimmer of hope that this could be the first signs of a population recovery.
In recent years the greenfinch has suffered a population crash (62% since 1993) caused by a severe outbreak of trichomonosis and as a result the species was added to the UK Red List last year. This infection is transmitted through contaminated food and drinking water, or by birds feeding on regurgitated food during the breeding season.
Garden owners can help slow transmission rates by temporarily stopping food supplies if sick birds are seen and by ensuring that garden bird feeders are cleaned regularly. The house sparrow remained at the top of the Big Garden Birdwatch rankings as the most frequently seen garden bird with over 1.7 million sightings recorded throughout the weekend. The blue tit and the starling remained in second and third place respectively.
These are the top 20 birds spotted across the country.
1 house sparrow – 4.21 per garden; 2 Blue Tit – 2.79 per garden; 3 starlings – 2.75 per garden; 4 Wood Pigeon – 2.47 per garden; 5 Blackbird – 2.27 per garden; 6 Robin – 1.47 per garden; 7 goldfinches – 1.4 per garden; 8 Great Tit – 1.39 per garden; 9 Pie – 1.25 per garden; 10 Chaffinch – 0.95 per garden; 11 Collared Dove – 0.84 per garden; 12 Nests – 0.81 per garden; 13 Jackdaws – 0.78 per garden; 14 Feral Pigeon – 0.77 per garden; 15 Long-tailed Tit – 0.75 per garden; 16 Carrion Crow – 0.64 per garden; 17 Great Tit – 0.55 per garden; 18 Greenfinch – 0.3 per garden; 19 Wren – 0.28 per garden; 20 Song Thrush – 0.11 per garden.
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