British birds are bouncing back

2011-03-31 15:02:55

A national survey has recorded an encouraging rise in small bird populations in the UK.

In January, over 600,000 people took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

The results, published this week, show a promising increase in garden bird populations since last year.

Over 10.2 million birds were counted. Goldcrest sightings doubled, while long-tailed tits rose by a third.

The annual survey, now in its 32nd year, was held on Saturday 29 January.

The survey asked people to take to their gardens and public open spaces to count the number of birds during a given hour.

When breeding ground populations become too large for the food available, waxwings migrate to the UK

The harsh winter conditions of 2009-10 caused significant drops in the number of small birds recorded in last year's Big Garden Birdwatch.

"We were really interested to see how the small birds fared after such a disastrous last year," says Big Garden Birdwatch co-ordinator Sarah Kelly.

"It appears that many may have had a decent breeding season and have been able to bounce back a little."

This year's results suggest an encouraging increase in long-tailed tits, goldcrests and coal tits.

But Sarah Kelly warns that people must not be complacent: "Another hard winter could see numbers back down so it's important everyone continues to feed their garden birds."

Many other previously declining populations, such as the blackbird and robin, also appear to be doing better, with numbers having stabilised when compared to last year.

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