Over 460,000 birds were counted in this year’s Big Farmland Bird Count, which is organised by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).
The Big Farmland Bird Count is sponsored by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and aims to provide a snapshot of the health of the UK’s farmland birds.
Counting took place from February 3-19, and saw farmers and land managers across the UK recording the birds they see on their land.
The results include information and counts from over 1,700 farmers.
They also show that 149 species of birds were recorded across more than 1.5 million acres and the birds spotted most often were blackbirds, woodpigeons and robins, which were seen on seven out of every 10 counts.
Conservation work on farms
The Big Farmland Bird Count also revealed statistics surrounding the conservation work for farmland birds being undertaken by farmers and landowners on their land.
A quarter of those who participated in the count are members of landscape-scale conservation projects such as farmer clusters.
Of all who responded:
- 62% are in some form of agri-environment scheme;
- 47% were providing some form of extra seed feed for birds (wild bird seed mixes, scatter feeding or hoppers);
- 36% of participants run a wild or released gamebird shoot;
- 45% of those with shoots grow wild bird seed mixtures and 62% put out supplementary food for farmland birds;
- Of those without shoots, 21% grow wild bird seed mixtures and 32% put out supplementary food.
Jess Brooks, a farm biodiversity advisor at GWCT, said: “A quarter of respondents are members of ambitious landscape-scale conservation projects such as farmer clusters, which is fantastic, and 62% are in an agri-environment scheme which is a big jump from 37% last year.
“Around 47% were providing some form of extra seed food for birds in late winter, which helps them survive this period of high starvation risk.”
