HOUSE sparrows have taken top spot in the world's biggest bird survey, the RSPB Garden Birdwatch.

The results reveal that starlings are still disappearing and song thrushes have dropped from almost every garden's top 20 bird list.

The number of sparrows has been relative stable in recent years, though they are massively down from levels at the beginning of the Big Garden Birdwatch 26 years ago.

The average number of times sparrows were seen per garden this year was 4.56 compared to an average of 10 in 1979.

The number of starlings was down almost to a quarter of those first recorded.

Sadly, song thrushes, one of the finest wild songsters, dropped this year after a slight increase in recent years.

The most widespread species this year, according to the survey which took place in January, was the blackbird, recorded in 92 per cent of all gardens, with house sparrows and starlings seen in 68 and 53 per cent of gardens respectively. Blue, great and long-tailed tits all continue to prosper and since over 70 per cent of gardens surveyed provided peanuts, this may not be surprising.

Richard Bashford, RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch co-ordinator, said: "It allows hundreds of thousands of people to get involved with a project that tells us how some of our best loved birds are faring.

"This sort of survey allows the RSPB to understand more about the population trends of our garden birds."

Across Worcestershire and Gloucestershire house sparrows and blue tits took the first two places and others spotted were starling, greenfinch, blackbird, chaffinch, great tit, robin, woodpigeon. collared dove and dunnock.

HOUSE sparrows have taken top spot in the world's biggest bird survey, the RSPB Garden Birdwatch.

The results reveal that starlings are still disappearing and song thrushes have dropped from almost every garden's top 20 bird list.

The number of sparrows has been relative stable in recent years, though they are massively down from levels at the beginning of the Big Garden Birdwatch 26 years ago.

The average number of times sparrows were seen per garden this year was 4.56 compared to an average of 10 in 1979.

The number of starlings was down almost to a quarter of those first recorded.

Sadly, song thrushes, one of the finest wild songsters, dropped this year after a slight increase in recent years.

The most widespread species this year, according to the survey which took place in January, was the blackbird, recorded in 92 per cent of all gardens, with house sparrows and starlings seen in 68 and 53 per cent of gardens respectively. Blue, great and long-tailed tits all continue to prosper and since over 70 per cent of gardens surveyed provided peanuts, this may not be surprising.

Richard Bashford, RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch co-ordinator, said: "It allows hundreds of thousands of people to get involved with a project that tells us how some of our best loved birds are faring.

"This sort of survey allows the RSPB to understand more about the population trends of our garden birds."

Across Worcestershire and Gloucestershire house sparrows and blue tits took the first two places and others spotted were starling, greenfinch, blackbird, chaffinch, great tit, robin, woodpigeon. collared dove and dunnock.