A refuge for a beleaguered bird

THE North East could be on its way to becoming a refuge for a familiar garden bird that is now in headlong retreat.

- TONY HENDERSON

The national results of this year's RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch show the starling has dropped out of the top three most seen species for the first time, with numbers the lowest ever recorded. The UK breeding population declined by 82% between 1970 and 2022. Prior to 2000, the starling was regularly the most numerous species recorded in the Big Garden Birdwatch.

Almost 20,000 spotters rook part in the Birdwatch in January in the North East. Their findings showed the starling bucked the national trend and topped the sightings league in Tyne and Wear and Tees Valley, demoting the house sparrow into second place.