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Greenfinches and great tit

 

The winter garden bird watch TALV 2012 carried out by the Estonian Ornithological Society on January 28th and 29th brought many surprises seeing to participants as well as birds. 2050 bird enthusiasts submitted their observations from 1439 places in all Estonia, or nearly twice as many as in previous years. Altogether 45 686 birds of 54 species were noted. Although the average number of birds in one observation place (32) was very close to that of the previous year (33), the number of birds and the variety of species according to many watchers were kept down by the severe cold during the observation period that caused less birds than usual to be visible. Certainly  also the cold and snowy winters of the previous years that decreased the numbers of many species has a role in the scarcity of birds.

 

The most abundant species for the third consecutive year was the great tit that was noted in more than  95% of the observation sites and accounted for around a quarter of the total number of birds. Second place was again achieved by the greenfinch, third was as usual the tree sparrow. The numbers of most species were stable, the most noticeable decreases were in the abundance of the invasive species jay and great spotted woodpecker; a similar trend can be seen for the partridge, victim of increasing predator numbers and cold winters. Observations of bullfinches have increased markedly. Species diversity decreased for the second year in a row by 4 species or 6,5%, mainly in the number of rare species. However, as in  previous years among winter rarities observed were the robin (29 ind), Eurasian collared dove (6 ind), middle spotted woodpecker (5 ind) and wren (2 ind).

 

The theme enquiry of this year’s garden bird watch concerned birds with signs of illness or abnormalities. 9,9% of those who answered had noticed such birds during this or the previous winters; the most common symptoms were drowsiness  and lethargy, noted in many species but primarily among green finches and great tits. 

 

The statistics from the garden bird watch, overall and by counties, are on the TALV 2012 home page:

www.eoy.ee/talv.

 

The Estonian Ornithological Society thanks all who took part in the garden bird watch! Next winter the garden bird watch takes place on January 26-27, 2013.