Has anyone else noticed a decline in chaffinch?

My local hide (Etherow country park, The Peak District) that i've been visiting on a regular basis for the past 3 years was once bustling with Chaffinchs, both male and female. They once seemed to dominate the area over other species of bird however we noticed 80% had what looked like fungal growth on their legs. Last year and again this year there seems to be very little numbers. I've seen 1 female there this year so far.  I haven't seen a decline in any other bird in the area.

  • I've never had many Chaffinches in the garden but it's my perception that there are even fewer now, I noticed a male the other day with warty growths which I suspect is papillomavirus virus. We have a woodland hide on my local patch and someone commented to me that it was quite rare to see a Chaffinch under the feeders.

    It will be interesting to see what the Big Garden Birdwatch shows up with respect to finch numbers in general.

  • I don't really track numbers but based on the limited numbers of sites that I frequent I've not noticed an obvious drop this year and there are still plenty around (I'm in Lancs). We do have birds with foot problems, which is sad to see, but it doesn't seem to affect overall numbers, although I can imagine it might if numbers are low anyway and they aren't being replaced. Our Greenfinch numbers have never been high since the problems a few years ago, but my impression is that they are very slowly recovering again.