Bird counters show: the blackbird is back in the garden

Vogelbescherming Nederland is delighted, now that on Sunday afternoon it appears that 100,000 people have already counted the number of birds in their garden, so that the state of the bird population can be checked. Good, the corona peak of 200,000 counters during the lockdowns will no longer be achieved. But apparently more people really care about the winged friends in their garden. “We used to do our very best to reach that 100,000,” says forester Hanne Tersmette, who specializes in city birds, on Sunday afternoon. “Now I expect that tens of thousands will be added.”

And all those counters provide good news. The decline in the number of blackbirds now seems to have really come to an end. “The blackbird used to be seen in nine out of ten gardens. But in 2017 and 2018 we saw that number really decrease, to two thirds of the gardens.” Blackbirds like to search for worms in the lawn and build a nest in a bush. There seemed to be no room for them in tiled gardens. But apparently they’re having a better time now.

Undisputed number one of the provisional top 25 of most seen birds this year is again the house sparrow, of which more than 300,000 were observed. That does not mean that this old familiar bird also comes into most gardens: the house sparrow is seen in less than half of the gardens. But if there is one, the birdie’s comrades are not far away, so that the house sparrow is well ahead of the great tit, the number two in the ranking with about 189,000 individuals. The blue tit is number three, followed by the blackbird, which is making a comeback in our backyards.

And there is another bird that raises its head more often: the great spotted woodpecker. “In forests and parks, nature managers often leave dead trees where woodpeckers make their holes and look for food.” This is how this bird with the blackbird shows: we can really mean something for the bird population. Tersmette: ,,We have the feeling that people are doing their best for birds. We can be a bit skeptical about the NK tile seesaw (in March it will be examined again in which municipality the most tiles make way for vegetation, ed.), but the circumstances in a garden make a lot of difference. The most ideal is a garden in which there are flowers, which attract insects, but also shrubs. And it also helps if, for example, a wooded bank is left behind after pruning, in which birds can find a place.”

It is not a superfluous luxury, because although there are bright spots, the figures for recent years also show that the number of urban birds is declining overall. One bird of particular concern at the moment is the greenfinch. In Denmark and Great Britain, that bird is much less to see. There seems to be a parasite involved, which seems to spread through the seed that the greenfinch eats. In the Netherlands, the decrease is still not too bad, but bird protection advises to pour boiling water over the feeding tables once a week. “The same applies to the feeding table as to your own kitchen: you have to keep it clean.”

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