The RSPB’s Big Garden
Birdwatch - the world’s largest wildlife survey - takes place on Saturday 26
and Sunday 27 January 2013 and they need you.
In 2012, just under
600,000 participants recorded over nine million birds across 285,000 gardens’,
helping the charity monitor the birds visiting our gardens over the winter
period.
This year they’re looking
for even more people to step up for nature and take part. You don’t have to be
an expert but your help means more results and a clearer picture of birds in
the wild.
To take part, people are
asked to spend just one hour at any time over Big Garden Birdwatch weekend
noting the highest number of each bird species seen in their gardens or local
park at any one time. They then have three weeks to submit their results to the
RSPB, either online or by post.
Now in its 34th year,
the survey provides the RSPB with an important snapshot of garden bird
populations in winter and has helped to highlight some dramatic declines in UK
garden birds.
In the first survey in
1979, an average of 15 starlings were seen per garden, but that fell to an
average of just three starlings per garden in 2012, the lowest level ever.
House sparrow numbers have fallen by two thirds over the lifetime of the survey
too.
Everyone who takes part
in Big Garden Birdwatch is contributing to the World’s biggest wildlife survey
and will help the RSPB learn more about some of our most familiar garden
birds.
The declines of birds
like starlings and sparrows over the last 30 years or so have been alarming,
but Big Garden Birdwatch has helped discover more about their numbers and
distribution across UK gardens, and that has been the first step in helping to
put things right.
Read on:
