The results of the Big Garden Bird Watch are out, and despite the bad weather late late year, some of our smallest birds were well represented:
| Rank | Bird | Percent of Gardens | Average Count |
|---|
| 1 | House Sparrow | 65.45 | 4.287 |
| 2 | Blackbird | 97.36 | 3.995 |
| 3 | Starling | 49.69 | 3.289 |
| 4 | Blue Tit | 83.33 | 2.455 |
| 5 | Woodpigeon | 75.16 | 2.074 |
| 6 | Goldfinch | 38.39 | 1.74 |
| 7 | Chaffinch | 50.56 | 1.577 |
| 8 | Robin | 85.32 | 1.418 |
| 9 | Collared Dove | 59.38 | 1.398 |
| 10 | Great Tit | 57.28 | 1.366 |
| 11 | Dunnock | 60.14 | 1.257 |
| 12 | Long tailed tit | 30.54 | 1.236 |
| 13 | Magpie | 42.98 | 0.813 |
| 14 | Greenfinch | 29.38 | 0.798 |
| 15 | Coal Tit | 36.78 | 0.633 |
| 16 | Feral pigeon | 18.33 | 0.599 |
| 17 | Carrion crow | 19.83 | 0.448 |
| 18 | Wren | 27.16 | 0.315 |
| 19 | Fieldfare | 4.45 | 0.271 |
| 20 | Redwing | 7.36 | 0.266 |
| | | | |
The results on the main RSPB site points out:
Sightings of goldcrests, the smallest UK bird, doubled, while long-tailed tits increased by a third and coal tits increased by a quarter. Numbers of blue tits also increased by 22 per cent and great tit numbers were up by 12 per cent.
Although smaller birds can be particularly badly affected by harsh winters, a good breeding season can help reverse declines, and these new results suggest that may have been the case in 2010.
It was also a good year for Waxwings: nationally, over 7,000 were counted in almost 1,000 gardens.
Many thanks to all the volunteers who took part, without whom it would be impossible to gather this vital information.
