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• Tales of Big Garden Birdwatch

About Big Garden Birdwatch

The Big Garden Birdwatch is the world's biggest bird survey.

Thanks to its simplicity and the small time it takes to do, the Big Garden Birdwatch has always had great support, providing us with a vital snapshot of the UK's birds each winter.

In 2007, over 400,000 people took part by counting the birds in their garden for an hour. Together they spotted 6 million birds across 236,000 gardens, helping reveal the winners and losers in the garden bird world.

Over the past three decades participants have made a significant contribution to monitoring garden bird numbers and helped highlight that some garden birds are in need of help.

The survey has recorded the huge declines in some of our most familiar birds. Since 1979, the number of house sparrows counted has fallen by 52% and the number of starlings by 76%.

However, it isn't all bad news - chaffinchs and great tits have both seen their numbers increase since 1979 by 36 and 52 per cent respectively.

Our scientists can then use these patterns in bird numbers to help prioritise our bird conservation work.

Calling all armchair scientists

You really don't need to be an expert to take part. Whether you're young or old, an 'expert' or a beginner, there really is no better place to start than the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch

By joining hundreds of thousands of people across the UK and counting the birds in your garden, you really are helping to save wild birds.

Spend an hour spying on your bird neighbours over the weekend of 24-25 January 2009, and help us discover who is top of the pecking order in UK gardens.

History of Big Garden Birdwatch In the late 1970s, we asked our junior membership to count the birds in their garden - over the same weekend. The 'one-off' idea was so successful that it has been a regular event since 1979. More...