My Account
Preliminary results of this year’s NZ Garden Bird Survey are in, and suggest that the house sparrow is still the number one bird most commonly seen in our gardens.
The survey, run by Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, has been held annually since 2007. At the end of June, members of the public were invited to become citizen scientists for an hour and count the number of birds in their garden.
This year, more than 5000 people took part nationally, with more than 80 of those on the Hibiscus Coast. These numbers are similar to last year’s.
The number of birds counted was also similar to last year, both at a national and local level, says survey founder Eric Spurr.
Nationally, only three native bird species made it into the top 10. The top 10 were house sparrow, silvereye, blackbird, starling, tui, fantail, myna, greenfinch, rock pigeon, and song thrush, the same order as last year.
On the Hibiscus Coast, the result was similar – the top 10 species observed were house sparrow, silvereye, myna, tui, rock pigeon, blackbird, greenfinch, starling, fantail, and eastern rosella. Mynas, rock pigeons, and eastern rosellas were more common on the Coast than nationally, while blackbirds, starlings, and fantails were less common.
Four native species occurred in the top 20 – kereru, swallow, kingfisher, and grey warbler. Spurr says the good news is that, based on preliminary results, the counts of all native species appear to be the same or greater than last year.
Final results are expected later in the year.
