Lets crunch some numbers

What are you most likely to see in a London garden, park, square or just by looking outside your window? Last year the RSPB conducted a survey ‘the Big garden birdwatch’ on the 31st of March 2011. This nationwide survey has been running now for about 30 years and is important in capturing data which reflects the state of the bird populations in the UK.

The figures are below and show the Starling to be the most visible bird in London. My guess for the most numerous would have been the Feral pigeon which was beaten into 6th place. Even its Country Cousin the Woodpigeon was more numerous.

Starling 1
Woodpigeon 2
Blue Tit 3
House Sparrow 4
Blackbird 5
Feral pigeon 6
Great Tit 7
Robin 8
Magpie 9
Goldfinch 10
Collared Dove 11
Chaffinch 12
Carrion crow 13
Ring_necked parakeet 14
Long tailed tit 15
Dunnock 16
Coal Tit 17
Greenfinch 18
Jay 19
Common gull 20


Despite the Starling and House sparrow (4) showing in the top 5 these birds are in serious decline and a priority species for conservation. They are nowhere near the numbers they were 20 or 30 years ago

Ring necked parakeets were at number 14 and have been steadily increasing over the years. These are an invasive species and were believed to have escaped from private collections or aviaries. They started to breed in about 1970 and from then the population has been steadily growing. London and the South East is a stronghold for this colourful bird. A good place to guarantee a sighting is Richmond park.

It’s worth pointing out that the last survey was in March, it might be interesting to see what the results would have been like in mid Summer . Would we have seen some of the migrants in our top 20, such as the Swift or House martin?

Would you like to get involved in this year’s survey ? For further information see the RSPB Big Garden Watch 2012