Count, feed and save a species

We can help by putting out food regularly – meal worms, seed, proprietary bird food, even bread if you must, but no matter how much we humans do to try to stem the fall in numbers, the likes of the common house sparrow appear to becoming a vanishing breed.

Just how hard their numbers have been hit in recent years is difficult to tell, but next month everyone has the chance to try to put the record straight. On January 28-29, 2012, the RSPB’s Big Garden Bird Watch will ask for the nation’s help in counting garden birds.

All you are asked to do is spend an hour recording the avian visitors which land in your garden (schools can also take part) and then let the RSPB know the results. Then it’s up to the conservation charity to work out what’s happening to the nation’s birds.

If you fancy taking part, you can send your bird count to www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch or get hold of a results form and post it off.

Birds have never needed our help as much as they do today, so don’t just spend one hour counting them – remember to feed them, give them a source of water to drink and in which to bathe, and, even better, provide habitat for them. The garden could be the difference between saving a species or losing a species.

A note about feeding birds: The RSPB has warned that the mesh and netting that surrounds fat balls, peanuts and seed sold for bird food can be a danger to birds by trapping them. The society is appealing to people to put such foods into safer, bird-friendly containers, and to write to manufacturers asking them to change the way they package such food.