The RSPB’s annual ‘Big Garden Birdwatch’ has revealed a significant 80% decline in the UK’s starling population since 1979.
Starlings are one of our most popular and recognisable bird species and are famous for their spectacular aerial displays in flocks of up-to a million birds:
The decline isn’t just local to the UK either, across Europe it has been reported that 40 million starlings have disappeared in the last 30 years.
The RSPB is now investigating as to the cause of the fall in starling populations.
[Sources: The Telegraph | BBC Nature]