More than 70 million birds have disappeared from Britain's gardens over the last 50 years, reveals shock new research.
The UK is home to 73 million fewer of our feathered friends today than it was in 1970, according to a study by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).
Almost 30 million house sparrows, 20 million starlings, four million skylarks, two million blackbirds and one million chaffinches have vanished from the UK in just five decades, scientists found by comparing the results of BTO-led surveys from the last 50 years.
Familiar birds as well as rarer species have disappeared from our towns and countryside at an unprecedented rate.
The shocking figures – a decline of almost a third in the total number of birds in the UK – is almost impossible to comprehend, but many older people will be aware of the disappearance of certain species, such as the cuckoo and turtle dove, from their local area.
BTO has created a website so that anyone can discover which species would once have been on their doorstep, but are now just a memory, by entering their postcode.
Experts say the estimated losses actually total 114 million individuals, or 57 million breeding pairs.
The losses are masked in part by increases in certain other species, including the wren, woodpigeon and blackcap, and new arrivals, such as the little egret and Cetti’s warbler.
But the growing numbers of such species, which result in gains of around 41 million individuals, do not compensate for the massive overall decline, resulting in a net loss of 73 million individual birds.
BTO chief executive Professor Juliet Vickery, said: “BTO’s wealth of data means we can confidently report this alarming drop in the UK’s breeding bird population.
"Presenting these results at the local level, so that anyone can see the changes that have happened on their doorstep simply by entering their postcode, delivers a powerful message that the UK’s birds are in trouble, and that we all need to do more.
“In the last 50 years, my own area of Cambridgeshire farmland has experienced some of the highest declines of species in Britain and Ireland.
"I can no longer hope to hear nightingales singing or enjoy house martins quite literally sharing my home.
"Future generations may well not hear or see song thrushes, cuckoos or kestrels in the area either. We must all do more to reverse these relentless declines and we need to do it urgently.’’
Project leader Dr Rob Robinson, BTO associate director of science, added: “Some detective work was required to assemble different sources of information, particularly as recording was more fragmented back in 1970.
"Counting birds on such a large scale isn’t easy and some numbers are difficult to ascertain.
"However, we’re lucky to have the help of thousands of highly skilled volunteers who have seen for themselves the way that birds have disappeared from UK landscapes.’’
