The UK bird population has declined by 44 million since 1966, according to a report by conservation groups.

The study is the first of its kind to give an overall view of how birds in the UK have fared over the decades.

It found that while certain species had increased in number, populations of some common birds had diminished dramatically.

The report, “State of the UK’s Birds 2012”, was compiled from volunteers’ observations of birds since the 1960s.

According to the report, carried out by experts from organisations such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the British Trust for Ornithology, there are an estimated 166 million birds nesting in the UK compared with 210 million in 1966.

House sparrows were found to be among the worst hit, with numbers down by 20 million compared with the 1960s.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/20360855
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When I were lad in Brisbane sparrows and starlings were thick on the ground, haven’t seen any for years now.

I used a popular search engine to come up with this

http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/birding-aus/2006-04/msg00427.html

It’s spot on, hardly any noisy miners but heaps of sparrows then, now heaps of noisy miners and bugger all sparrows.

So what’s killing off sparrows in their millions?

Bubblecar said:

So what’s killing off sparrows in their millions?

lack of real habitat

House sparrows have declined in Britain by 68% since 1977. “If the birds nested in areas rich in insects, they did much better. Where there were too few insects, young house sparrows were likely to die. Young house sparrows need insects, rather than seeds, peanuts or bread, to survive.”.

>>Where there were too few insects

This is what worries me about spraying for mossies in our wetlands creeks and billabongs, the mossie is a big part of the Australia bird food chain but the Hippies don’t throw themselves under trains to protect them because they are not cute and cuddly.
I expect more from our Hippies, I havent got time to protect mossies because I need time to work and shower, that’s why I give Hippies a gold coin from time to time, they’re letting us down man.

Peak Warming Man said:

>>Where there were too few insects

This is what worries me about spraying for mossies in our wetlands creeks and billabongs, the mossie is a big part of the Australia bird food chain but the Hippies don’t throw themselves under trains to protect them because they are not cute and cuddly.
I expect more from our Hippies, I havent got time to protect mossies because I need time to work and shower, that’s why I give Hippies a gold coin from time to time, they’re letting us down man.

yeah, in Australia this would mean extinction for the willie wagtail

>>yeah, in Australia this would mean extinction for the willie wagtail

Aye.