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Bird Numbers (1 Viewer)

H

humakt

Well-known member
This is something I was talking to someone about yesterday, but I thought I'd also raise it here.
What bird species have you noticed increasing and decreasing in numbers?
I realise that responses may just be local (probably as local as your own back garden), but it would be interesting to see if there is a consensus that some are increasing or decreasing.

Here's what I've noticed.

Over the last few years I've seen a increase in blue tits and thrushes of all kinds (especially song thrushes). That's particularly good because there had been reports that they'd been decreasing. There has long been warnings that house sparrows had been decreasing, but certainly in our garden I'd seen no evidence for that. That said, over the last couple of years there has been a palpable decrease in their numbers.
Equally, there's been a decrease in numbers of goldfinches and magpies. Still not enough for either to be in danger, mind you. But I think back to the last year or two and I recall flocks of goldfinches in the trees and a constant presence of three or four magpies in the garden. I suspect in these two cases that nature has levelled their numbers, though my instincts tell me that human activity is to blame for the fall in house sparrows (I hope I'm wrong).
I've noticed a general increase in the tits - I see more long-tailed tits (and not just in the garden) than I ever used to.

What about yourselves?
 
I've found the opposite around here (suburban Surrey) - Goldfinch numbers have exploded and Magpies are pretty numerous. House Sparrows seem to have recovered in the years I've been living here, from one pair to a small flock of between 12 and 20. The Tit population seems pretty stable but I have noticed an increase in LTTs too.
 
Good populations of all birds in my garden. Only difference massive increase in Goldfinches in my garden over the years. Appears to be no decrease in any of other birds, more or less the same.
Ian.
 
For me locally an increase in Goldfinches and a decrease in Greenfinches together with local extinctions of Tree Sparrow and Yellowhammer, a significant decrease in Little Owls and a lesser decrease in Kestrels.

All the best
 
Paul Chapman said:
For me locally an increase in Goldfinches and a decrease in Greenfinches together with local extinctions of Tree Sparrow and Yellowhammer, a significant decrease in Little Owls and a lesser decrease in Kestrels.

All the best
Click to expand...

My observations in respect of the garden endorse Pauls finch scenario but I concentrate on the welfare of 3 species due to their decline. Tree Sparrow, with 3 pairs again using nextboxes this year, Yellowhammer, up to 6 birds currently on the provided seed, and Grey Partridge, 1 pair still visiting although breeding failed last year, assumed predation by foxes. Little Owls are plentiful but will prevent the Kestrels breeding this year due to the number of smaller birds taken from the feeder areas last year by the 'perch and swoop' method.
 
See Bullfinches almost daily; Greenfinches are a rarity. Partly down to my location I guess, but from ten years ago even there's been a change.

Was discussing Cirl Buntings with someone (which nearly went extinct - loss of winter feeding apparently) and they were saying Reed Buntings have dropped alarmingly as random winter/breeding birds in Cornwall ... hmmm.
 
Was discussing Cirl Buntings with someone (which nearly went extinct - loss of winter feeding apparently) and they were saying Reed Buntings have dropped alarmingly as random winter/breeding birds in Cornwall ... hmmm.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for that Dan, gives me confidence I'm taking the right approach in providing extensive winter seed for the declining species. Being surrounded by farmland with modern 'monoculture' methods. hay meadows are a thing of the past which is really detrimental to 'farmland' birds in my estimation

More chance of a Dusky Thrush here than a Cirl Bunting ;)
 
In general:
Birds which can eat stuff that humans grow (crop plants, and shop-bought bird food) — increasing
Everything else — declining
 
Nutcracker said:
In general:
Birds which can eat stuff that humans grow (...shop-bought bird food) — increasing
Click to expand...

That's an interesting comment, and one I've heard several times.
I must confess that I'm not really much of a birder/twitcher/bird-watcher/whatever-you-want-to-call-it, and that I take interest and pleasure in wildlife and the natural world but I have no desire to 'study' it.
That said, I also want to do the very best I can.
You can probably see how those two stances can come in conflict.

My recourse is to offer shop-bought bird food at our bird feeding area but I am keen and willing to provide a more 'natural' choice if it aids diversity and all those other things that are important.

With that in mind what feed would you (and anyone else) suggest we provide for the birds that visit our garden? Keep in mind that we live in the south east UK and we live in suburbia - providing feed to attract coastal migrants is never going to achieve much, for example.

I'd genuinely like to know so that we could genuinely try to make a difference.
 
Basically, plant lots of (preferably native) food-producing shrubs, trees, etc., and make sure there is plenty of dense, thorny cover where birds have a chance to escape from neighbours cats. Don't manicure the garden, and don't use any pesticides, herbicides, etc. :t:
 
Then I'm very pleased to say that we have already gone a long way to doing just that!
Our garden is split into two areas - the half near the house is very much a traditional garden - grass lawn with flowers around the borders. However, we planted flowers that would attract bees and butterflies, and we have a good amount of green shurbs.
At the top of the garden is where we grow veg, and where the bird feeding area is located because it would have less human activity. This area is also home to two spruce trees (the feeders and table are beneath those) that produce lots of cones with seeds in them (these trees are home to lots of birds, including a pair of goldcrests), there is also a large green shrub (absolutely no idea what it is - must have been planted by previous occupants. It's not hawthorn, anyway) that has an abundance of red berries (a pair or redwings made it home during winter and completely stripped it of the berries), an elder tree that also provides berries, and the two sheds are overgrown with ivy on the roofs where blackcaps were seen earlier in the year.

The barrier between our house and the neighbours is a large hedgerow (again, no idea what it is) and this is home to at least one pair of wrens.

We made an early decision that everything would be completely organic and that no pesticides, herbicides, etc would be used!

So looks like that without trying we may have got it more or less right! Always open to further suggestions, though, particularly when it comes to foods to leave out.
 
talking about Goldfinch, I was in central London at the weekend and the number of singing Goldfinch in improbable locations was surprising. It was a case of any tree will do even in Soho and Golden Squares and on the occasional spindly tree around Covent garden.
 
The decline in greenfinch is well publicised and mainly due to respiratory disease. It is perhaps not coincidental that the upsurge in goldfinch numbers seems inversely proportional to the decline in the former?

Whist many would agree that in general tit numbers are increasing the Willow Tit is struggling and becoming increasingly localised, some say as a result of increased competition from other tits or even climate change. One species seemingly benefitting from this last is the Dartford Warbler which seems to be increasing both in numbers and range wherever suitable habitat exists.

I also have noticed a decline in little owl numbers. Once was the time when you could not drive around the countryside without seeing at least one perched on a telegraph pole or similar.

On the plus side though almost every raptor species has increased, some from the brink of extinction in the UK. The one exception is as Paul Chapman mentioned the Kestrel. This is I think is due partly to the maturing of the verges on the motorway networks. Back when I was a mere stripling and the motorways were an ever increasing phenomena (I remember the building of the M69 and actually worked on the construction of the M25) there were lots of grass verges, with vibration from traffic bringing up lots of worms etc which would in turn attract much kestrel fodder (they would take the worms also). This newly created habitat provided ideal hunting grounds for kestrels and they became a very common sight indeed, but these same verges now sport mature trees and bushes which is far less suitable for the kestrel.
 
One species that personally has amazed me increasing in the Uk, is the Common Buzzard, I counted over 20 in the space of 5 miles on the way to work, and not really sure why they are doing so well ?? Also Raven

Greenfinch for me seems hard to find these days

Mark
 
Can't really speak for garden birds over here (though I still see a good number of Greenfinches, and Tree Sparrows too), but there's a couple species that have rebounded in recent decades, such as White-tailed Eagle, Common Crane, Peregrine, Raven, Bluethroat etc., maybe Stonechat too. It's now relatively easy to see most of these. On the other hand, many rural species seem to be declining still (pesticides, fewer insects...), and I'm particularly worried about long-distance migrants such as Whinchat or Cuckoo.
 
markspirito said:
One species that personally has amazed me increasing in the Uk, is the Common Buzzard, I counted over 20 in the space of 5 miles on the way to work, and not really sure why they are doing so well ??
Click to expand...

They've bounced back well. As a generalist predator on earthworms and carrion etc they are about in good numbers, plus often quite visible perched up along roadsides. Not sure about your way, but eg were a major rarity in eg Norfolk over 20 years ago - now not so.
 
dantheman said:
They've bounced back well. As a generalist predator on earthworms and carrion etc they are about in good numbers, plus often quite visible perched up along roadsides. Not sure about your way, but eg were a major rarity in eg Norfolk over 20 years ago - now not so.
Click to expand...


Yes 20 years ago it was a highlight of the day to see a Buzzard in Northants and impossible to see a Raven, still not sure why they have increased, maybe pesticides are not quite as bad as they once was and have improved things for the better, maybe farmland birds will show a similar increase over time ?

Mark
 
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markspirito said:
not sure why they have increased,
Click to expand...
Reduction in illegal persecution in some areas.

Unfortunately illegal poisoning and shooting by gamekeepers is still rife in other areas (particularly grouse moors, where the vast majority still kill raptors, but also some pheasant shooting estates), with in consequence no increase, or a decline again recently after some inclease through the 90s and 00s.
 
We now see Common Buzzards all the time in Birmingham, UK. Not just at the edges of the city either, our allottment in Kings Heath you could probably argue is close to the edge of the city boundary. However I regularly see a pair over the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and from the window of our flat in Moseley.
 
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