Over 460,000 birds were counted in this year’s Big Farmland Bird Count, which is arranged by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).
The Big Farmland Bird Count is sponsored by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and intends to supply a picture of the health of the UK’s farmland birds.
Counting happened from February 3-19, and saw farmers and land supervisors throughout the UK taping the birds they see on their land.
The results consist of info and counts from over 1,700 farmers.
They likewise reveal that 149 types of birds were taped throughout more than 1.5 million acres and the birds found frequently were blackbirds, woodpigeons and robins, which were seen on 7 out of every 10 counts.
Conservation deal with farms
The Big Farmland Bird Count likewise revealed data surrounding the preservation work for farmland birds being carried out by farmers and landowners on their land.
A quarter of those who took part in the count are members of landscape-scale preservation tasks such as farmer clusters.
Of all who reacted:
- 62% remain in some form of agri-environment plan;
- 47% were offering some form of additional seed feed for birds (wild bird seed blends, scatter feeding or hoppers);
- 36% of individuals run a wild or launched gamebird shoot;
- 45% of those with shoots grow wild bird seed mixes and 62% put out additional food for farmland birds;
- Of those without shoots, 21% grow wild bird seed mixes and 32% put out additional food.
Jess Brooks, a farm biodiversity consultant at GWCT, said: “A quarter of participants are members of enthusiastic landscape-scale preservation tasks such as farmer clusters, which is great, and 62% remain in an agri-environment plan which is a huge dive from 37% in 2015.
“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.”
