The Wryneck: GOLDEN YEAR FOR THE GOLDFINCH

RSPB's 2018 Big Garden Birdwatch results have revealed a golden year for goldfinches (pictured above)..

Says the charity:

Favourable conditions lead to a surge in sightings of goldfinch, blue tit and coal tit, along with many other smaller garden birds.
The results revealed a dip in sightings of our more solitary species like blackbird and robin as the mild winter meant they spent more time foraging for food away from our gardens.
Hundreds of thousands of people across the UK spent an hour watching the birds that visit their garden or outdoor space as a part of the Big Garden Birdwatch.
An impressive 6.7 million birds were counted nationally.

The event held over the last weekend in January revealed an increase in sightings of smaller birds, such as goldfinch, long-tailed tit and coal tit that can usually be seen visiting gardens and outside spaces in mixed flocks.

In Lincolnshire, for instance, recorded sightings of goldies rose by 14 per cent on 2017 and its bright red face was seen almost 40 per cent of the county’s gardens.

Other small birds that are thought to have benefited from the mild January weather include coal tit and blue tit.

It also proved to be a good year for the greenfinch which seems to be making a welcome recovery following its 60 per cent decline in UK sightings since the first survey in 1979.

The influx of these species to our gardens is thought to be linked to the favourable conditions during their successful breeding season in 2017.

This, combined with the kind autumn and winter weather in the run up to the Birdwatch, will have contributed to the rise in sightings.

Daniel Hayhow, RSPB Conservation Scientist, comments “Our garden birds are a part of our everyday life, whether it’s the robin perched on the garden fence or the flock of starlings you see on your way to work.

"To have hundreds of thousands of people spend an hour watching the wildlife in their garden isn’t only great to see, but it also helps us build up a picture of how our garden birds are doing, which is really helpful.

“Last summer was a really good year for many breeding birds with warm weather creating great conditions for many smaller birds to raise their young to adulthood.

"The rise in sightings of goldfinch, long-tailed tit and coal tit, along with chaffinches and greenfinches, goes to show that in the absence of cold weather they can survive the winter months in good numbers.

"It is likely that the warmer temperatures during the autumn and winter will have made it easier for these birds to find food, like insects, in our gardens, which in previous colder winters would have been harder to come by because of frosts and snow.

A dip in the number of recorded sightings of blackbirds, robins and wren may have been because, with more food available in the wider countryside, these species were less inclined to visit gardens.

However, unlike finches and tits, robins and wrens did not have a good breeding season in 2017 and data from other surveys indicate that their numbers may be down overall this year.

Just over 420,000 people are understood to have taken part in the Big Garden Birdwatch.