Common sparrow and flamboyant jay stars of national bird survey

One is referred to in some parts as a "brown budgie", the other is the closest Britain will get to a bird of paradise. But both feature in a national survey of our garden birds.

The house sparrow remains the most common species in Greater Manchester and across the UK but there has also been a big rise in the number of jays. And after decades of decline the red-listed greenfinch may be on the cups of a revival.

Just under 20,000 people took part in the RSPB bird count this year in our region, and 700,000 in the UK. House sparrows held on the top spot, but the jay surprisingly flew nine places up on last year's results. Big Garden Birdwatch is the world’s largest wildlife survey and gives RSPB scientists insights into how our garden birds are faring.

READ MORE: This tiny bird is unique to our region - and in danger of going extinct

The results of the survey, carried out in January, has the blue tit second to the house sparrow, followed by the starling, wood pigeon, blackbird, robin, goldfinch, great tit, magpie, and chaffinch as the top ten. The top 20 included the collared dove, dunnock, long-tailed tit, and wren. The song thrush was at number 20 but its average number of sightings compared to 1979 is down 80 per cent.

In Greater Manchester, house sparrow took the top spot, followed closely by starling and wood pigeon, blue tit, and blackbird. Locally the number of coal tits seen was down eight per cent on last year, yet jackdaws rose by nine per cent.

In the UK, jay moved up nine places to number 23, an increase of 73% compared to 2021 numbers. It has a soft pinkish grey colouring and a flash of blue on the wing - the dandy of the crow family. Each autumn, jays, can often be seen flying back and forth finding and