RSPB survey highlights starling decline
The most recent annual Big Garden Birdwatch survey conducted by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has recorded a further decline in the number of sightings of starlings. When the survey began in 1979, the average number of starlings sighted in UK gardens stood at fifteen. Last year, the average number of sightings by participants had dropped to three and sightings were only recorded in less than half of gardens in the UK.
The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) has declared starlings a 'conservation concern', and the RSPB and allied organisations are investigating the causes of the decline. Improvements in farming efficiency leading to a drop in wasted grain on which the birds feed and changes in architectural fashions leading to a reduction in the number of potential nesting sites have both been offered as possible reasons.
This year's survey achieved the best response from the public in the history of the initiative. The RSPB has revealed that approximately nine million birds across 70 species were counted by nearly 600,000 people.
Defra has published guidance for the vet sector ahead of a proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
