RSPB Garden Birdwatch results are in!

This year over one million households took part in the Garden Birdwatch. You can find details of the results of the survey here.

It’s been a good year for house sparrows, which topped the chart again this year, and also blackbirds and robins, moving up to numbers 4 and 6 respectively. In total over 17 million birds were recorded including some rather more unusual visitors such as black redstart, fieldfare and skylark. The introduced exotic ring-necked parakeet was a visitor to 1% of the gardens that took part.

However, greenfinches and chaffinches aren’t doing so well, with the lowest numbers ever of both recorded. This may be due on part to the disease Trichomonas gallinae, which affects the birds’ digestive system and to which finches are particularly prone. The disease can be spread by unhygienic bird feeders so it’s really important to clean your feeders regularly. More advice and information on garden bird health is here.