News archive

Thursday, 1 January 2009

Big Garden Bird Watch 2009

Thanks to it's simplicity and the small time it takes to do, the Big Garden Bird Watch has always had great support, providing the RSPB with a vital snapshot of the UK's birds each winter. 2009 is the 30th anniversary of the Big Garden Birdwatch and to mark the occasion the RSPB hopes to get record numbers of people taking part.

Over the past three decades participants have have made a huge 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.

Taking part in the Big Garden Birdwatch is simple and fun. All you need to do is watch your garden or local park on either Saturday 24th or Sunday 25th January 2009.

Simply spend an hour counting the birds, recording the highest number of each species seen in your garden (not flying over) at any one time. It's important that you don't count all the birds you see because some birds will return to your garden many times in the hour.

You can do your Birdwatch in your garden or a local park. Either way it's best to decide on a place where you can see the birds well and where you can sit quietly so they are not disturbed.

Each year the RSPB provides a downloadable counting sheet to help you keep track of how many birds you've seen. The sheet has pictures of the commonest birds seen in gardens and space to cross off how many of each species you have seen together. We will have copies of the form available at our Indoor Meeting on January 13th 2009.

Once you have completed your Birdwatch you can submit your results online at www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch. The results will then be collated and published in March 2009.