Big Garden Birdwatch reports back in the south

WATCH: Malcolm Shaw reports on the findings of the Big Garden Birdwatch 2021

The RSPB says record numbers took part in this year's Big Garden Birdwatch in January. 

The results reveal which species are doing well and which are in trouble.

One million people took part, twice the usual number.

The survey has been taking place for the last forty-two years,  revealing the drastic declines in some of our previously common garden birds. 

The number of song thrushes has fallen by more than eighty per cent, while house sparrows, which still top the chart for sightings, have actually fallen by more than half since 1979.

But there's good news too.  Long-tailed tits have become a much more familiar sight in our gardens, as have other colourful visitors, goldfinches. 

Witnessing birds such as goldfinches bobbing across gardens brings a feeling of well-being Credit: PA

The mass of data from this year's Big Garden Birdwatch will help inform the RSPB's conservation work.