The results of the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch were released last week. They show considerable stability in identities and rankings of the UK’s top 10 winter garden birds. That’s what usually happens with small changes in rankings from year to year and larger changes becoming apparent over longer periods.
It’s worth looking at the actual results (they are quite well summarised – click here) and the results from the previous three years are available, as are county-level detailed results.
The headline result from the RSPB is that the poor old Starling has fallen from third to fourth and looking at the data there is a decline in numbers (though one would have to correct for effort (eg numbers of gardens participating) to be sure of this). But a fall in numbers is only one way to change your position in the rankings – you can be overtaken by another species getting commoner, and there is some of that going on as Woodpigeon (when did we cease calling it Wood Pigeon?) has increased in each of the last couple of years. If Starlings had declined to their current level (uncorrected for effort) and Woodpigeons had remained at their 2022 level (uncorrected for effort) then Starling would still be #3.
The increase in Woodpigeon numbers is real, I think. The BBS says they are increasing (and Starling decreasing) and my memory (a less reliable measurement) tells me that Woodpigeons were less common garden visitors in the days of my youth but also over the 25+ years I have lived in this house and looked out over this garden. It used to be that Collared Doves lived in towns and Woodpigeons lived in the country but now both live in towns, and in my small rural town in Northants, Woodpigeons are much more in evidence now than in the past.
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