Since it began in 1979, the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch has established itself as a key piece of citizen science, monitoring the fluctuating fortunes of garden bird populations.
Intended at first for schoolchildren, adults were added in 2001, and it has become a fixture in the birdwatching calendar. Over the weekend of 24-26 January thousands of people will devote an hour to logging the number and species of birds using their gardens.
In 2024, over 600,000 took part, recording 9.7 million birds. But, as well as celebrating our garden birds, it has graphically demonstrated their decline.
Dramatic drop
Numbers are dropping catastrophically. House sparrows, despite topping the list in 2024, are down by 60% compared to the first Birdwatch in 1979. Song thrush numbers have fallen by more than 80% over the same period. Greenfinches have declined by 69%, dropping from seventh place in 1979 to 18th last year.
While the fortunes of some species have improved – great- and long-tailed tits for example – that isn’t the case everywhere. While the decline is clear to be seen in my own garden in a south-west Essex village surrounded by farmland, those improvements recorded in the Birdwatch are certainly not.
Sadly, our garden has experienced an across-the-board and accelerating population collapse over the past 4-5 years.
Fewer visitors
A couple of decades ago, our garden attracted flocks of greenfinch, but my last sighting was in 2020. Each winter, chaffinches would appear in a strip of hedgerow and silver birches, but numbers began to tail off in 2012 and not one has been recorded since 2020.
Flocks of tits would forage through our silver birch, and long-tailed tits, one of the success stories highlighted by the RSPB, were regular. Great spotted woodpeckers would occasionally pass through. Not anymore.
Each Christmas, a cold snap would bring flocks of redwings and occasionally fieldfares to the berry-bearing shrubs, staying into the New Year. None have passed through since 2021.
Occasionally, more unusual species would occur, such as nuthatch, lesser redpoll and brambling. These special visitors are now apparently absent.
Typical garden birds such as dunnocks and wrens no longer forage through the shrubs yet the invertebrates on which they feed are still present. Collared doves, once regular, are only occasionally seen. Even magpies, once regarded as the villains of the piece (without evidence) are scarcer. Probably only woodpigeon, or the occasional blackbird and robin, can be described as regular visitors.
Why the decline?
The RSPB suggests fewer green spaces, pollution and a changing climate are some of the challenges faced by many birds. Greenfinches have been hit by trichomonosis, a disease spread by a protozoan parasite which may be spread by poor hygiene at garden feeding stations. But neither we, nor our neighbours, have changed our approach to gardening. There have been no drastic changes in farming practices locally, no destruction of habitats, no large-scale housing developments.
An explanation may lie in farming practices established years ago without an immediate impact, but now having a cumulative effect. There is no longer any mixed farming and, as a result, the number of insects has been in free fall. Without the insects, our village no longer has any house martin colonies, and swallows are rarely seen.
The volume and speed of traffic has also become a notable feature of village life, but the effect on bird populations is unclear. The number of domestic cats, a known predator of garden birds, does not appear to have increased.
The jury is out
There have always been fluctuations in bird populations and the causes have always been difficult to isolate. While once-familiar birds have disappeared, new species have arrived in the locality. Buzzards have become a familiar sight over the village, recently joined by majestic red kites. And a prominent radio mast on the edge of the village has encouraged one of only six pairs of breeding raven in the whole of Essex. Less welcome, ring-necked parakeets increasingly make themselves heard in the area. But none of these arrivals compensate for the loss of our garden birds.
It is with regret, therefore, that I will not be joining in the Big Garden Birdwatch this year. I support the principle of citizen science, but it would be just too depressing.
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