bullfinches

I've hardly seen any at all this year, just a handful of individuals.  Never saw them where we used to live either until the crab apple tree was in flower and then they came to eat the buds lol

As far as I'm aware, no one is quite sure as to why bullfinches have been in decline but the decline started way back in the 70's so it is not a recent decline, it has been happening over several decades/

This website might help answer your question - the Bullfinch species action plan on the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) website:http://www.ukbap.org.uk/UKPlans.aspx?ID=542 (the link may not work directly but you can copy and paste into a well-known search engine!)Bullfinches eat a lot of fruit, buds and insects. I'm never really clear on whether good "fruit "years are dry in spring and wet later, or the reverse. But maybe a few good years have helped them in your local patch. The mild winters we've had won't have done any harm either. Plus the improvements to the farming system. However I suspect it's a bit too soon to suggest bullfinches are definitely on the way up. They were moved from Red to Amber status this year but only because the long term trend fell to 49% - just under the threshold for Red listing status. I checked the BTO Breeding Bird Survey trends. From 1995-2007 in the South West, the trend was down -16%, compared with a UK average trend of -11% in the same period. So they are still declining overall. But underneath that regional number, at a local level, you are always going to get better and worse pockets of countryside where local populations seem to be running counter to the overall trend.Good work on tracking down five breeding pairs locally - are you submitting your data to the BTO Atlas (either through the Atlas pages or using Birdtrack website?  

Sorry Petrirosso I should have explained further.

Buzzard has very helpfully given you links to the Bird Atlas and Birdtrack surveys run by the BTO. You'll find loads of info on these sites and as Buzzard says, registering is really easy. The Bird Atlas is the first combined breeding and wintering bird atlas for the UK and once complete in a couple of years' time will add a massive amount of knowledge about how all our birds are fairing. Once you've registered you can either volunteer to survey a tetrad (that's a 2x2km square) or simply add 'roving records' - any records of any birds, anywhere you happen to travel. If you opt instead for the Birdtrack site, you can add data there happy in the knowledge that the BirdTrack data will be fed into the Altas project and help fill in some of those blank squares on the map of British birds!

Surveying a tetrad may sound a bit scary if you've not done it before, but actually it's really easy - and fun. At a minimum, all you need to do is find a tetrad near you that hasn't been surveyed yet (The BTO website has a mapping tool to help you do this), register to take it on, visit it twice over the winter for a minimum of 1 hour each time, visiting all the significant habitats represented in the square. Then upload your counts onto the BTO website. The breeding season survey is basically the same - two visits lasting 1 or 2 hours apiece.

I've been doing a number of tetrads around Banbury over the last couple of seasons. It's surprising what you can find. Last winter I recorded my first local wintering merlin, and in June this year I also found a brood of fledged treecreepers, again the first time I've seen a family together. The important point about the Atlas is that knowing the distribution of common birds is just as important as the rarer ones, so every single record can count!

Hope you are able to contribute - let us know how you get on!

 

Hi,

I have noticed the drop in Bullfinch numbers over the last 30 years ( EEK- that makes me sound old)

I also notice a possible change in habitat preference - unless it's just WHERE I do my birding. There are a lot less orchards around where I live now. When I do see bullfinches they are normally in hawthorn hedges along field edges, but they enter surrounding gardens as well. I have watched them feeding on grass seeds and insects under garden hedges (leilandii).

S

 

Thanks for those links.

We live on a National Trust Estate in the Tamar Valley where the National Trust  and some other locals have been planting apple and cherry trees.Perhaps this has helped to contribute the the rise in Bullfinches in our area ?

We have 8 Apple trees in our garden, planted about 15 years ago , mainly of old Cornish variets but I've not noticed the Bullfinches do any damage and we had a bumper crop this year !