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 Wood Pigeon.
It's good news for the wood pigeon but the song thrush is in trouble in the RSPB's 25th Big Garden Birdwatch.
A record 409,000 people took part in the RSPB's 25th Big Garden Birdwatch. Many were Today listeners. Some 8.6 million birds were recorded from 247,000 gardens. The data gathered forms a useful indicator of Britain's bird populations and the wider health of the countryside.
This year's winners are the collared dove and wood pigeon which are five times more common than in 1979, when the Big Garden Birdwatch survey began. The losers are the starling, house sparrow, song thrush and blackbird. All have declined in numbers since 1979. The results are below. Thank you to all our listeners who participated.
Top ten garden birds in 2004, with average number seen per garden and ranking in brackets:
house sparrow 4.8 (1)
starling 4.3 (2)
blue tit 2.9 (3)
blackbird 2.7 (4)
chaffinch 2.3 (5)
greenfinch 1.8 (6)
collared dove 1.8 (7)
great tit 1.5 (8)
wood pigeon 1.4 (9)
robin 1.4 (10)
Those same bird numbers in 1979, with average number seen per garden and ranking in brackets:
house sparrow 10.0 (2)
starling 15.0 (1)
blue tit 2.4 (5)
blackbird 4.0 (3)
chaffinch 3.0 (4)
greenfinch 1.0 (8)
collared dove 0.3 (-)
great tit 0.9 (9)
wood pigeon 0.2 (-)
robin 2.0 (6)
Notes:
The collared dove and wood pigeon didn't feature in the top 10 in 1979.
The bird to suffer the biggest drop is the song thrush, down to 19th place in 2004 from 7th in 1979.
Collared doves were first recorded breeding in the UK in 1955 having spread from Asia. They soon became common over most of the country.
The wood pigeon has always been common in the UK but in 1979 it wasn't associated with gardens. Changes in听farming practices have since encouraged more into gardens.
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