Results 2011

Wow! Over 600,000 of you took part in Big Garden Birdwatch 2011 and counted over 10 million birds. Thank you.

Not only does that make 2011 a record-breaking year for the number of people watching their garden birds, but your counts also revealed some exciting news about our smaller birds.

Small birds bounce back

Cast your mind back to the winter of 2009/10 and you might just remember that it was long and harsh.

This weather really affected birds like long-tailed tits, goldcrests and coal tits and numbers of all three species dropping significantly in Big Garden Birdwatch 2010.

We always knew that 2011 would therefore be interesting to see how the small birds were faring a year on. Thanks to your counts, we were able to see that many of our smaller birds bounced back.

Waxwing winter

We knew 2011 was also going to be a bumper year for waxwings as we'd already had lots of reports.

These striking birds flood to the UK from Scandinavia every few winters. This influx is known as a 'waxwing winter'.

Over 7,000 were counted in 2011, in almost 1,000 gardens.

They feed on berries and only come into gardens if the right food is available. This result shows that lots of people are planting the right things for wildlife and reaping the rewards.

Top of the birdwatch

House sparrows retained top spot for the eight year running, with an average of four seen per garden.

Starlings and blackbirds swapped positions on the 2011 leader board, with starlings now at number two and blackbirds at number three.

Starling sightings increased by a quarter since 2010, but their numbers are still down from when Big Garden Birdwatch began in 1979.

You can download the full results from the side of this page.