Date published: 2006/03/23
The BBC says:
The number of birds visiting British gardens is on the decline, according to a survey involving 470,000 people.
Although the house sparrow continued to be the most common garden bird, its numbers have dropped from an average of 10 per garden in 1979 to 4.4 in 2006.
The starling, once the most common, is down to a quarter of those in 1979.
Some 86,000 children were among those who watched gardens and parks in the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds's January Big Garden Birdwatch.
The numbers involved broke the previous record set in 2004 of 419,000 participants.
The house sparrow was the most common bird seen over the two days - although the blackbird, recorded in 94% of all 270,000 gardens involved, was the most widespread - and 8.1m birds of 80 species were seen.
The same report comes out every year. Unfortunately this study is completely unscientific, since it is uncontrolled. Further, since so many more people take part, compared with 1979, comparisons between then and now are even more meaningless. Back then the people taking part were probably much better at bird watching, and they probably also had bigger gardens (hence more birds). (The survey counts the number of birds per garden, not per acre.) There is nothing on the RSPB website to suggest that they have put any thought into this issue at all. But of course they have a story to spin, and their story is always that the world is ending for birds. It's a pity the BBC just runs what amounts to a press release from the RSPB every year without bothering to critique it in any way. But that is par for the course for the BBC, which almost always gives a free pass to anybody who claims to be an environmentalist.
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