THE HOUSE sparrow is the most common visitor to Warwickshire gardens.
Nearly 5,000 residents 4,931 across the county spent an hour watching the birds visiting their garden or outdoor space as a part of the RSPB’s annual Big Garden Birdwatch – counting 6.7million birds.
The top 20 birds spotted in Warwickshire in the 2018 survery were the house sparrow, followed by the blue tit, starling, blackbird, woodpigeon, goldfinch, long tailed tit, great tit, robin, chaffinch, magpie, collared dove, dunnock, jackdaw, carrion crow, coal tit, greenfinch, feral pigeon, wren, and song thrush.
Daniel Hayhow, RSPB conservation scientist, said: “Our garden birds are a part of our everyday life, whether it’s the robin perched on the garden fence or the flock of starlings you see on your way to work. To have hundreds of thousands of people nationwide spend an hour watching the wildlife in their garden isn’t only great to see, but it also helps us build up a picture of how our garden birds are doing, which is really helpful.
“Last summer was a really good year for many breeding birds with warm weather creating great conditions for many smaller birds to raise their young to adulthood. The rise in sightings of goldfinch, long-tailed tit and coal tit, along with chaffinches and greenfinches, goes to show that in the absence of cold weather they can survive the winter months in good numbers.”
Visit www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch for further details.
