The house sparrow held top spot in Hampshire during this year's RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch.

It was also the UK's top bird overall with almost 1.2 million sightings throughout the weekend January 26-28 but for many species fewer birds were recorded than in 2018.

In Hampshire the sparrow came in ahead of the starling and wood pigeon.

House sparrows showed a 5.4% increase in sightings across Hampshire gardens.

UK house sparrow numbers, reported by participants since the Big Garden Birdwatch began, have fallen by 56%, but in recent years, national numbers have slowly started to rise again, giving conservationists hope that at least a partial recovery may be happening.

While starlings were still in the top three, the number of sightings across Hampshire gardens actually fell by over 6%. Starlings have faced dramatic population declines across the UK in the past few decades and these already threatened birds are still very much at risk across the country.

This year, reports of long-tailed tits sighted in Hampshire gardens decreased by more than 34%, after being counted in particularly large numbers in 2018. Populations may have been affected by last year’s ‘Beast from the East’ as small birds are more susceptible to spells of cold weather, but it’s too early to say if this is a one-year blip or the beginning of a trend.

The threatened song thrush is also now in the top 20 for Hampshire, with residents reporting a 9.1% increase in sightings.

The latest results from the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch have revealed a mixed national picture for the UK’s garden birdlife with 15 of the top 20 species returning fewer sightings in gardens across the country than in 2018.

In the South East, 92,594 participants took part in the survey , an increase of 21% increase on the 2018 survey.

Nic Scothern, the RSPB’s south east regional director said: “It’s incredible to see that so many people across the South East show a real passion and concern for the wildlife in their gardens and green spaces. People are becoming more and more aware of the challenges and threats that our UK wildlife is currently facing. Citizen science surveys, such as the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, really help empower people of all ages and backgrounds to play an active part in conservation, and to speak out for the wildlife they love and want to protect.”

To highlight the crisis that nature is facing and the loss of over 40 million wild birds from the UK in just half a century, the RSPB is releasing a specially-created track of birdsong titled ‘Let Nature Sing’. The single contains some of the most recognisable birdsong that we used to enjoy, but that are on their way to disappearing forever. A compilation of beautiful sound recordings of birds with powerful conservation stories including the Cuckoo, Curlew, Nightingale and Turtle Dove.

The charity is calling on the public to download, stream and share the single and help get birdsong into the charts for the first time, spreading the word that people across the UK are passionate about nature’s recovery.

The top 20 birds for Hampshire were:

1.House_sparrow

2. Starling

3.Woodpigeon

4. Blue tit

5. Blackbird

6. Goldfinch

7. Robin

8. Great tit

9. Long-tailed tit

10. Magpie

11. Collared dove

12. Chaffinch

13. Dunnock

14. Jackdaw

15. Carrion crow

16. Coal tit

17. Feral pigeon

18. Greenfinch

19. Wren

20. Song thrush