BIRDWATCHERS across the borough joined fellow enthusiasts nationwide to count our feathered friends for an RSPB survey.

Throughout Basingstoke and Deane, the blue tit, which was previously the most spotted bird in the borough, was pipped to the post by the house sparrow.

Local bird-lovers spotted an average of four sparrows in their gardens, compared with an average of 3.9 blue tits.

The woodpigeon was the third most noticed bird. The blackbird locally managed an average of 2.7 spotted per garden compared with the blackbird’s 2.2 national average. But fewer starlings were spotted in the borough than ever before and the figure of just 1.6 per garden was nearly half the UK average of three per garden.

RSPB South East’s Samantha Stokes said: “We’ve generally noticed fewer starlings this winter, both in gardens and at some of the traditionally large roosts around the region.

“It’s thought that this may in part be the effect of the mild weather. Usually in winter, the UK’s resident starlings are joined by hundreds of thousands of starlings from northern Europe, but this year they simply may not have needed to travel as far as the UK if conditions were to their liking elsewhere in Europe.

“However, we also need to bear in mind breeding numbers of starlings are also falling and there may be fewer birds around in general.”

Nationwide, almost 600,000 people took part in this year’s RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, counting over nine million birds.

Samantha said: “Even in mild winters, people see a lot of birds in their gardens.

“It was nine million this year, so the survey is really helpful to get a ‘snapshot’ during the winter months.

“It’s also great that so many people use Big Garden Birdwatch as an annual activity to monitor what is happening in their own gardens.”