House sparrows are the most spotted bird in UK gardens for the 20th year in a row, according to new data. This comes despite the decline of the bird’s population, with nearly 22 million house sparrows lost from the country since 1966.
Roughly 1.5 million house sparrows were spotted in gardens between 27 and 29 January this year, according to people who took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch, the garden wildlife survey conducted by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).
However, RSPB data shows that the number of house sparrows spotted in UK gardens has dropped by nearly 60% since the survey began in 1979.
“The numbers speak for themselves when it comes to the startling declines of some of our once common birds,” said Beccy Speight, RSPB’s chief executive.
“They no longer have the abundance across the UK that they used to have. We are in a nature and climate emergency and we’ve lost 38 million birds from our skies in the last 50 years.”
This year, more than half a million people in the UK took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch, and more than 9 million birds were spotted.
The results also identified problems faced by other common bird species, including chaffinches and greenfinches. These birds have been affected by the disease trichomonosis, which can cause wounds in the throat.
Jeff Knott, the RSPB’s director for policy and advocacy, said that the survey results highlight nationwide conservation issues that need to be addressed.
“If you look even at the London parks, there used to be thousands of sparrows there, but now they’re almost completely absent,” he said. “While we may think of rare and iconic species such as eagles being the conservation problem, it’s actually the more familiar species becoming less common than they used to be.”
Knott said one of the positive outcomes of the survey is the ability to recognise problems early, as there is a vast amount of data collected from the hundreds of thousands of participants.
“Because the survey is so widespread, it’s a good way to get an indicator of if common and widespread birds are actually not doing as well. Even though people can see them in their gardens, it’s hiding a much bigger underlying problem of a decline. So even for species as familiar as the house sparrow, if the management of the countryside isn’t right for nature, they can be at real risk.
“A really good thing that we can take away from this is that people still care. This is a huge cause for optimism, as it shows that we can reinstate wildlife and help it grow back in numbers.”
