Top 10 twitterers in your garden

Birdwatchers compile list of most commonly spotted birds in county

Thousands of birdwatchers in Lancashire have been keeping a close eye on the wildlife flying in and out of their gardens.

It was part of the annual Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) Big Garden Birdwatch.

And now the results are in.

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Topping the list of the most commonly spotted birds in Lancashire was the house sparrow, closely followed by the starling.

Completing the top three is the blackbird, which was the county’s most widespread bird and made an appearance in 94 per cent of gardens.

In total, close to 500,000 people took part in the survey, including 9,732 from Lancashire.

Dr Daniel Hayhow, RSPB conservation scientist, said: “The sight of a robin or blackbird perched on the garden fence is often one of the first experiences we have with nature.

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“So to have over half a million people taking part and counting a bumper eight million birds across one weekend is amazing.

“Using the information from the weekend we’ll be able to create a snapshot of how our garden birds are doing.”

The survey brought good news for robins, which move up a place to eighth in the Lancashire rankings.

However, there was a downturn in the recorded sightings of goldfinches, down three per cent, and there was an 18 per cent fall in the number of chaffinches.

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Dr Hayhow explained: “Numbers of small bodied birds are susceptible to changes in weather throughout the year, and scientists believe that the prolonged wet weather during the 2016 breeding season led to fewer younger birds surviving than usual, meaning there are fewer to be seen in gardens.”

THE TOP 10 BIRDS IN LANCASHIRE

1. House sparrow

4 per garden

Seen in 68.4 per cent of gardens

2. Starling

3.8 per garden

Seen in 50.1 per cent of gardens

3. Blackbird

3 per garden

Seen in 93.7 per cent of gardens

4. Blue tit

2.6 per garden

Seen in 80.6 per cent of gardens

5. Woodpigeon

1.8 per garden

Seen in 70.7 per cent of gardens

6. Goldfinch

1.7 per garden

Seen in 34.2 per cent of gardens

7. Great tit

1.6 per garden

Seen in 62.4 per cent of gardens

8. Robin

1.5 per garden

Seen in 88.0 per cent of gardens

9. Magpie

1.3 per garden

Seen in 58.6 per cent of gardens

10. Long tailed tit

1.2 per garden

Seen in 29.7 per cent of gardens