Close to half-a-million people joined in the world’s largest garden wildlife survey counting more than eight million birds during the 38th RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, witnessing some exciting and unusual visitors. 

The event held over the last weekend in January revealed an explosion in the number of recorded sightings of waxwings. These attractive looking birds flock to UK gardens in winter once every seven or eight years when the berry crop fails in their native Scandinavia.

Known as an ‘irruption’, results showed that waxwings were seen in around 11 times more gardens in 2017 compared to previous years. 

Morwenna Alldis, spokesperson for the RSPB Cornwall said: ’We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone in Cornwall who took part in our 2017 Big Garden Birdwatch. By donating an hour for nature, you have provided invaluable data about the health of the feathered friends that make living in Cornwall so wonderful.

’And your results didn’t disappoint across the top five birds recorded this year, compared to 2016.

In fifth place, the melodious blackbird was spotted not only in more Cornish gardens this year, but also in greater numbers on average.

’The chaffinch nabbed fourth position; however, a decrease has been recorded in both the average number of this species spotted and the number of gardens it was recorded in across Cornwall.

’Colourful garden favourite the blue tit, stole third place whilst a decrease in species numbers was reported, it has been spotted in more of Cornwall’s gardens this year.

’The starling just missed out on first place – boasting a double increase in both the number of birds on average recorded and the number of gardens they were recorded in.

’And finally, the top of the pops number one hit goes once again to the house sparrow – although there has been a dip in the average number of them spotted in Cornwall across the 2017 Big Garden Birdwatch Weekend, there was an increase in the amount of Cornish gardens that reported seeing them, compared to 2016.’

There was also good news for robins, with the average number seen visiting gardens at its highest level since 1986. 

This year’s results also pointed to the positive effects that wildlife friendly gardens are having on bird behaviours. Recorded sightings increased for 16 of the top 20 Big Garden Birdwatch birds between 2016 and 2017 showing how gardens are becoming an invaluable resource for our most common British garden birds. 

The nation’s school children noticed a similar pattern when taking part in the RSPB Big Schools Birdwatch. The UK-wide survey of birds in schools saw over 73,000 school children spend an hour in nature counting birds. Blackbird remained the most common playground visitor for the ninth year in succession with over 88% schools spotting at least one. The top three was rounded off by starling and woodpigeon.

For more information about the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch results –  www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch