During the last few decades, the population of British House Sparrows has declined by roughly half, causing great alarm among both scientists and the general public. However, the latest data from the British Trust for Ornithology's (BTO) Garden BirdWatch, suggests that the decline is levelling off in our gardens.

The decline of the House Sparrow has been dramatic, falling from around 12 million British pairs in the 1970s to between six and seven million pairs currently, with a greater reduction in population size in urban and rural areas, than in suburban ones. Given that gardens are thought to be a particularly valuable habitat for our House Sparrows, it is encouraging that the latest BTO Garden BirdWatch data indicate that numbers are stabilizing, which is also reflected in data from the wider countryside.

The reasons behind the decline very much depend on population location, as House Sparrows are fairly sedentary birds. Populations across Britain were affected by loss of nesting sites and food sources, especially the lack of invertebrates to feed their young. However, in rural areas, changes in farming practices are thought to have had a large effect but in urban and suburban populations causes were more complex and may have included increased competition with other birds and increased pesticide use in gardens.

Clare Simm, from the BTO Garden Ecology Team, said: "This complexity is also reflected in the factors that are driving the change in this delightful bird's fortunes. We are a nation of wildlife lovers and more people are now managing their gardens for wildlife, which will be benefitting our House Sparrows. There is also a greater awareness of clean feeding stations and in reducing garden pesticide use. The combination of these factors could be helping the House Sparrow to maintain its population."

This news does not necessarily mean that House Sparrows are out of danger, as the turning point has only occurred in the last few years. Clare Simm has recommended five simple things that anyone can do in their gardens to encourage House Sparrows:

• Let an area of your garden go wild to encourage insects
• Plant species such as hawthorn and Ivy which provide thick vegetation for House Sparrows to hide in
• Provide your birds with a home, using either a House Sparrow terrace or a group of nest boxes (with 32mm entrance holes) near the eaves of your house
• If you feed your birds, provide them with a suitable seed mix that includes large grains
• Regularly clean your feeding stations to prevent disease

You can find out more about the Garden BirdWatch on the BTO website.

Last winter was a trial for us all, and our garden birds did not have an easy
time of it either. The British Trust for Ornithology's (BTO) Garden Bird Feeding
Survey saw unprecedented numbers of birds driven into Britain's gardens in
search of food. As winter looms once again, an army of 'citizen scientists' is preparing to chart the changing fortunes of our winter visitors.

The combination of poor fruit and seed yields in the wider countryside last
autumn, and the long, cold winter that followed, brought unprecedented numbers
of birds to our gardens. Perhaps the most striking arrival was the number of Siskins visiting gardens in search of food — numbers last winter were more than double the previous five-year average — a response to very poor crops of Sitka Spruce and birch seed, which Siskins usually take in winter.

 While the stories emerging from individual winters are fascinating, it is the
quantity of information collected by the BTO's armchair birdwatchers since 1970
that has proved so important. These long-term changes hint at what the future
might hold for our gardens and their visiting bird communities. Garden
birdwatchers may be seeing less of 'common' species, such as Collared Dove, Song Thrush and Starling, which are disappearing from our gardens
quite rapidly. However, fortunes for other birds are improving with Bullfinch, Goldfinch and Great Spotted Woodpecker becoming regulars.

 As the nation hopes that this winter is not as long or cold as the last one,
a certain group of birdwatchers are probably in two minds. For those who
participate in the BTO's Garden Bird Feeding Survey (GBFS), it is time to dust
off their notebooks and start recording from the warmth of their living
rooms.

Clare Simm of the BTO Garden Ecology team shares her thoughts as to what may
happen this winter: "With an unusually late start to the breeding season this
year, and a slow move towards the warm weather, it is difficult to predict
exactly how our birds will be faring as they enter the winter months. If this
winter is anywhere near as cold as last, then we might expect a sudden influx
into gardens once the autumn seed and berry stocks are depleted. One thing is
for sure, our 'citizen scientists' will be the first to notice and tell us."

 For a free guide on what to feed your birds this winter, information on how
to become a citizen scientist with the BTO and the opportunity to contribute to
valuable work like this, email [email protected],
telephone 01842 750050 or write to GBFS, BTO, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk,
IP24 2PU.

Researchers have found that providing extra food in early spring leads to earlier egg laying and increased productivity in Great Spotted Woodpeckers. Birdwatchers have been amazed by the big increase in the numbers for Great Spotted Woodpeckers over the last 15 or so years. In a paper in the latest issue of Bird Stud, the journal of the British Trust for Ornithology, authors Ken and Linda Smith provide a potential explanation for the woodpeckers' success.

In a wood in Hertfordshire, Great Spotted Woodpeckers were provided with suet blocks at 13 feeding stations distributed over half of a 100-ha study wood from early February until late April 2011, with the other half of the wood left unfed. In the spring of 2011 breeding attempts in the 'fed' zone were earlier, by an average of four or five days and birds there produced almost twice as many fledged youngsters as those in the unfed zone, even though the supplementary feeding stopped before the main period of chick rearing.

BTO members Ken and Linda Smith had been studying the woodland for the previous five years and found no differences between the zones in any of the previous years when no extra food was provided. The availability of caterpillars, the natural food for the breeding woodpeckers, was measured by using 'frass' traps to collect their droppings. 2011 was a very warm spring and the abundance of natural prey peaked very early. This meant that none of the woodpeckers' breeding attempts were well synchronized with the emergence of the caterpillars. However, the small advancement in first egg date meant the supplemented birds were better synchronized than the birds that did not have access to suet blocks. Birds in the fed areas raised an average of 4.2 chicks per pair, compared to 2.1 chicks per pair in the unfed areas. Ken Smith said, "Having studied these birds for best part of 30 years, I was amazed at the difference extra food made in 2011. A few days' shift in egg-laying date allowed them to be so much more productive."

The response of Great Spotted Woodpeckers to supplementary feeding suggests that they may be limited in their ability to shift their breeding period in response to the earlier boom in caterpillar numbers. This has important implications for the response of the birds to warm springs, which are expected to be more frequent under future climate change. By using feeders, Great Spotted Woodpeckers breeding in woodlands close to gardens may well be able to avoid problems caused by the changing timing of the spring season. By producing a big brood of youngsters, even in early springs, garden-feeding parents may be helping to fuel the current population increase.

The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) hopes to answer one of British ornithology's greatest mysteries using the very latest that technology has to offer in a project starting this summer. The House Martin is well known to many people; from April to September it lives cheek by jowl with those lucky enough to have this energetic little bird nest under their eaves. In recent years, however, the number breeding here in the UK has fallen by two thirds, leading to the species being Amber-listed as a bird of conservation concern and in need of help.

Though we know a lot about the breeding ecology of the House Martin in the UK, once September arrives and this enigmatic bird heads off south for the winter it virtually disappears from our radar. It is not known where in Africa House Martins winter, or how precisely they get there. If ornithologists are to start understanding what is driving the decline of the martins, then it is these questions that will need to be answered.

This summer, the BTO aims to use the latest technology to discover the routes that House Martins take to Africa and to find out exactly where they spend the winter months. BTO researchers plan to do this by fitting a tiny (shirt button-sized) device known as a geolocator to each bird. Weighing less than a gramme, the device contains a clock, a calendar and a light sensor, together with enough memory to store all of the data collected from the day it is fitted until the day it is retrieved.

By comparing daylight length, as measured by the light sensor, with the time and date recorded, scientists at the BTO are able to determine where on the planet the device was at any given time. This information will then reveal the wintering areas, together with the location of possible stopover and refuelling sites, precise migration routes and the timing of the migration through Europe and Africa.

Paul Stancliffe of the BTO commented, "I have long dreamed of being able to follow a bird like the House Martin on its migration from Britain to Africa, to get a glimpse of the places it is passing through and the places that it chooses to stay and rest for a while before continuing on its journey. It is very exciting to think that we are on the brink of new discoveries that should help these delightful birds and provide them with a more optimistic future. This technology comes at a price and we need help to secure enough of them to make the project worthwhile. Anyone interested in seeing how they might be able to help can find out more by visiting www.bto.org. Each device costs £170 and we hope to be able to fit them to at least 20 birds. We need help to support the scientists developing this project."

For more information please visit http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/house-martin-survey/movements.

Nesting activity had been held back by the coldest April in 24 years but May has brought some sunnier days. Nest Box Challenge participants are now reporting the first Blue and Great Tit hatchlings and Robin chicks fledging. The cold conditions that delayed many of our summer visitors also affected our resident birds, and many are now just at the beginning of their breeding season. Help the BTO find out just how late they are by telling us what stage nest boxes are at in your garden.