Lord Campbell of Croyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have discovered reasons for the present scarcity of birds in the London area, in particular house sparrows and starlings. [HL1097]
164WA
§ Lord WhittyRecent Defra research showed that during the past 30 years house sparrow populations have declined most in South East England and suburban and urban gardens have seen the most marked fall. In contrast, they are thriving in Scotland and Wales, both in urban and rural areas.
Starling numbers have declined in both suburban and rural areas. The decline has been greatest in the South and West. Starling breeding patterns have shown a recent improvement but this is least so in urban gardens in the South East.
Defra research has been complemented by work coordinated on behalf of the London Biodiversity Partnership (LBP) by the RSPB, London Wildlife Trust, Greater London Authority and London Natural History Society. The survey Where Have All Our Sparrows Gone? ran from 18 June until 19 July 2002. The Mayor of London announced the results of the research on 14 January.
Over 9,000 people took part in the survey, counting almost 75,000 sparrows and creating the most detailed picture of the city's sparrows to date. The broad picture is of a ring of urban London where sparrows are still quite common, rather fewer sparrows around the outskirts, a definite sparrow hotspot on the eastern side of London but a gap in Inner London where very few sparrows were recorded. The lowest mean number of sparrows was found in the Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster areas.
Other interesting results include that sparrows were more likely to nest in homes built before 1945 than in newer homes. City farms have continued to attract sparrows, even within the inner boroughs: 96 per cent had sparrows, with an average count of 12 birds.
Further analysis of the survey results is planned to see how strongly they correlate with various factors in London that might be impacting on sparrows.