Results

• Prize draw results
• Top 20

Stunning starlings top of the class

Starlings are once again top of the class, having been the Big Schools' Birdwatch number one for the past four years.

Even though starlings are fairly common sights in school grounds, parks and gardens studies have shown that their numbers have dropped by 66% since the mid-1970's.

As a red listed species – meaning that we have great conservation concerns about them - it is great news that schools are proving such a great hit for these amazing birds.

Stunning starling facts

• They are amazing mimics – able to copy sounds such as car alarms and telephones
• Starlings sing in the winter when very few other birds do
• A starling's legs turn red in the summer
• At certain times of year, you can tell the sexes apart by the colour of the base of the bill – blue for males, pink for females
• Starlings feed up to 20 miles away from their roosts in winter
• They gather in very large flocks, which increase in size during the winter. These flocks can be detected on radar and can include thousands of starlings.
• It is not uncommon for females to dump their eggs in another starling's nest
• The oldest recorded wild starling was 21 years old
• A starling's eyes move forward when feeding to allow it to see what it's eating, in a 'prying' action
• The distinctive spots on a starling vary. Spots are white, cream or buff tips to their feathers, which wear off as the winter progresses. Spots may signal status within a flock, and help to establish a pecking order without needing to fight. Young starlings have more spots than adults and females have more spots than males.
• Male starlings also have longer and more pointed throat feathers than females – have a look at a male in full song in the spring. These longer feathers are used to impress other males, as well as females.

A big thank you

Thank you to all the 48,000 children and teachers who took part in Big Schools' Birdwatch 2008. You have done a great job recognising and counting birds - we hope you had lots of fun taking part.

The Big Schools' Birdwatch is helping us put together a picture of what is happening with our common birds over the whole country, so thank you very much for sending in your results. They are all important to us, no matter whether you saw lots of birds or very few.

We hope you will join in again next year.