People in Sussex encouraged to take part in RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch
The annual event helps conservationists build a bigger picture of which species are in decline
People across Sussex are being asked to spend one hour counting the birds in their garden this weekend for the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch.
The annual event, from January 27th-29th, allows conservationists to gather data on which species are under threat – and which are thriving.
The charity's South East spokesperson, Alice Young, said: “Overall, very sadly, we've seen 38 million birds lost from UK skies in the past 50-years and this is due to a variety of reasons such as habitat loss and climate change.
“It really does show that we are in a nature and climate emergency and that every count matters in surveys such as the Big Garden Birdwatch, as it allows us to have such a huge amount of data all at once.”
Previous results show there has been a 57 per cent decline in house sparrows since the beginning of the survey in 1979, despite the species being top of the chart for the past 19-years.
Although the cause hasn’t been established, conservation scientists are investigating possible reasons such as a lack of invertebrate prey to eat during the breeding season.
A total of 24,000 people across Sussex took part in last year’s survey, which named house sparrows as the number one bird in West Sussex for 2022, followed by starlings and blue tits.
Alice added: “The big garden Birdwatch is for absolutely everyone.
“You don't have to be an experienced birdwatcher, you can be completely new to it and all you have to do is sign up.
“What you get is a really nice ID guide that has beautiful illustrations of garden birds which can help you with your bird watch, and then once you've done your counts, you can just submit your results back at rspb.org.uk.”