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It's a golden year for goldfinches, according to the 2018 Garden Birdwatch

European goldfinch - Credit: BRIAN POLLARD / Alamy Stock Photo
European goldfinch - Credit: BRIAN POLLARD / Alamy Stock Photo

Goldfinches seem to be everywhere at the moment. In the garden and allotment, the street trees, the supermarket car park. They gather in big gangs, or ‘charms’, a sea of bright red faces, biscuit-brown bodies and black wings with yellow wing bars. I usually hear them before I see them, their twittering song is a watery mix of squeaking hospital trolley, wheezes and raspberries. I look up and find 10 or 15 in a tree, the whole lot of them singing together as if having a very excitable chat. 

Their scientific name, Carduelis carduelis, is a nod to their favourite food, the seeds of plants in the thistle or Carduaeae (Cynareae) tribe, which include thistles, teasels and knapweeds. In winter, less tidy gardeners may spot them feasting on teasels. 

Their numbers have steadily increased since the 1930s, when their widespread slaughter came to an end. They migrated from farmland to the suburbs only fairly recently, partly, it’s thought, due to the niger seed and sunflower hearts we leave out for them. Indeed, so at home are they now in our gardens they have switched their feeding preferences – according to a recent BTO Garden Birdwatch Survey they prefer sunflower hearts to niger seed, these days. 

Goldfinches carduelis carduelis feeding on nyger seed on garden feeder January - Credit: Keith M Law/Alamy 
Goldfinches feeding on niger seed Credit: Keith M Law/Alamy

It should come as no surprise, then, to learn that the goldfinch had a ‘golden year’ in the 2018 RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch (BGBW). Sightings rose by 11 per cent on 2017 figures and it was seen in more than two-thirds of gardens. Now at number six in the BGBW Top 20, it’s one of our most common garden birds.

“Last summer was a really good year for many breeding birds with warm weather creating great conditions for smaller birds to raise their young to adulthood,” says RSPB Conservation Scientist Dr Daniel Hayhow. Favourable breeding conditions in 2017, combined with a mild autumn and winter weather in the run-up to the Birdwatch (before we were hit by the Beast from the East), are thought to have contributed to their continued success. 

Goldfinches nest in loose colonies in hedges and trees, typically in larger gardens. And they nest late, too, often with young still in the nest in August. If you have goldfinches in your garden and you suspect they’re nesting, do be sure to hold off trimming your hedge until you’re sure they’re no longer using it. 

Long Tailed Tit, - Credit: Nigel Pye/Alamy 
Long tailed tit Credit: Nigel Pye/Alamy

Other birds that did well this year include the long-tailed tit, which increased by 16 per cent, coal tit, which increased by 15 per cent, and blue tit, which increased by five per cent. Again, favourable breeding conditions and mild temperatures are thought to have boosted numbers, although we are yet to see what became of them after temperatures plummeted in late February. Happily, also, this year proved to be a better year for the greenfinch, which has suffered a 60 per cent decline in sightings since the survey began in 1979, due to the parasitic Trichomonosis disease. Could the five per cent increase in greenfinch sightings signal better times ahead? 

Greenfinch on bird table in garden  - Credit: David Tipling/Alamy
Greenfinches Credit: David Tipling/Alamy

A dip in sightings of more solitary species, such as the blackbird, reflect only the mild weather, as these birds will have spent more time foraging for food away from our gardens. However, numbers of robins and wrens were also down and it’s thought this may reflect an overall drop in numbers. “Unlike tits and finches, robins and wrens did not have a good breeding season in 2017,” says Hayhow. 

The house sparrow remains at the top of the Big Garden Birdwatch rankings as the most commonly seen garden bird. The starling held onto the second spot and the blue tit moved up one place, coming in at number three.  

  • For a full round up of all the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch results and to see which birds were visiting gardens where you live, visit rspb.org.uk/birdwatch