Garden Bird Survey 2009 - 10

BirdWatch Ireland's most popular survey starts on Monday, November 30th.

Garden Bird Survey 2008-09 Oran O'Sullivan reports on the results of last winter's survey ...

After a succession of comparatively mild winters, our garden birds were faced with a particularly cold winter in 2008/09, the coldest in eighteen years. There were persistent cold spells at the beginning of each month from December to February, and snowfalls in early January and February were widespread. So how did this seasonal weather affect our birds?

More on that later, but firstly, a big thank you to all who participated in last winter's Garden Bird Survey. It was the 15th season of the survey in its present format, and it is as popular as ever: 692 completed survey forms were returned. For the first time, surveyors were able to submit their data electronically, and over 100 of you took up this challenge, thereby cutting down on our costs and ensuring quick presentation and analysis of the data.

New garden bird surveyors are always welcome, This year, 169 new gardens were added to the extensive list of gardens that have already taken part in the survey, which now numbers almost 3,000!

Garden bird diversity

The number of different types of birds recorded in Irish gardens last winter was a very respectable 88 species. Diversity remained highest in large and rural gardens. The single highest total, 40 species, was found in a rural County Wicklow garden, although Waterford, Wexford and Tipperary were the counties with the highest diversity overall. While large, rural gardens continue to attract the most species, your efforts encourage diversity and survival of garden bird populations regardless of the type or size of garden.

Top 20 garden birds

There was no change in the top three 'pecking' order last winter. The Robin held onto top position and was recorded in all but one of the 692 gardens participating. Blackbird retained its second position, while the diminutive Blue Tit held on to the third position in a season that showed it moving upwards in the rankings from its three other family members.

Changes in the Top Ten

Many of our surveyors commented on the season being notable for the number and variety of tit species. Great Tit moved up two positions to fourth, while its smaller cousin, the Coal Tit, broke its tradition of remaining static at eighth position and rose to sixth place overall. The Wren moved up three places, to claim eighth position.

The losers in the top ten were Magpie, surprisingly down two places to seventh, and Greenfinch, down three positions to tenth, a decline widely reported by surveyors, both in distribution and abundance. Goldfinch remained static at ninth. A bird of conservation concern, the House Sparrow, slipped one to eleventh, though was present in 82% of our gardens, a consistent pitch over the last five years.

Changes in the Top Twenty

The big mover in the top twenty was undoubtedly Long-tailed Tit, up five places to nineteenth, attracted to garden nut feeders by the prolonged cold spells. It will be interesting to see if increased occurrence at feeding stations helped them survive the harsh winter.

The Blackcap climbed back up to twentieth position, occurring in 54% of our gardens, which is not bad for a warbler. Their strong and aggressive territorial behaviour, noted by many surveyors last winter, is undoubtedly a positive factor in their continued success.

Most abundant birds

The Starling and House Sparrow were the most numerous of our garden birds last winter, followed by Fieldfare, Redwing and Rook, Both the Starling and the House Sparrow are of conservation concern in Ireland and Europe, but they maintain stable positions in our garden bird rankings, at eleventh and twelfth place respectively.

View from the top

Birds of prey maintain a presence in our gardens, particularly the Sparrowhawk which occurred in 28% of our gardens last winter, followed by the Kestrel, in 7.7%, and Buzzard, in a healthy 3% of gardens. Merlin, Peregrine, Hen Harrier and even one regular Red Kite completed the array of hawks, together with Long-eared Owl and the very scarce Barn Owl.

Trends in garden birds over the last 15 years

The great wealth of data gathered over the last fifteen winters has made it possible to explore the health of our garden bird populations. Garden bird surveyors widely reported a crash in Greenfinch numbers last winter, but our analysis of the survey results shows the crash actually began earlier, with massive rates of declines since 2005/06. There has been an annual rate decline of 4% per year since 1994, In contrast, Long-tailed Tit has increased by 11 in the 15-year period - that's a highly significant increase by any standards - while Coal Tit has shown a more modest 2% increase.

A survey form and the simple instructions are in the Winter 2009 edition of Wings magazine or you can download them in Acrobat format here: Garden Bird Survey Form 2009-10 Garden Bird Survey Instructions If you don't have Acrobat Reader, you can download it here: