This week, I’m talking garden birds with Kate Risely, Garden BirdWatch Organiser at the British Trust for Ornithology. Kate talks us through the trends that have occurred in our garden bird populations over the past 40 years, what and when to feed them, diseases that are on the rise and how you can attract more birds in your garden. Plus, Kate answers my question; are magpies vandals, living off the fat of our songbirds?

About Kate:

Kate leads the BTO's Garden Ecology team and co-ordinates the programme of garden ecology surveys and research, within the Communications department.

Kate has overall responsibility for running for Garden BirdWatch, a 'citizen science' project where volunteers record birds and other taxa using their gardens on a weekly, year-round basis, as well as additional garden-based surveys. Kate is interested in the research and conservation applications of our garden wildlife data.

We discuss:

• The BTO Garden BirdWatch & how you can take part
• Why the data collected through the Garden BirdWatch is so important
• Trends around garden birds over the last 40 years
• When and what to feed your garden birds
• Diseases in garden birds
• How to attract more birds to your garden

Links:

British Trust for Ornithology, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk, IP24 2PU

Tel: 01842 750050

Garden BirdWatch www.bto.org/gbw

Garden Wildlife Health: https://www.gardenwildlifehealth.org/

Feeding affecting bird communities: https://www.bto.org/our-science/publications/peer-reviewed-papers/composition-british-bird-communities-associated-long

Blackcaps: https://www.bto.org/our-science/publications/peer-reviewed-papers/supplementary-feeding-gardens-driver-evolutionary

Disease risks of bird feeding: https://www.bto.org/our-science/publications/peer-reviewed-papers/health-hazards-wild-birds-and-risk-factors-associated

Greenfinch declines due to disease: https://www.bto.org/our-science/publications/peer-reviewed-papers/emergence-and-spread-finch-trichomonosis-british-isles

Predator effects on bird populations: https://www.bto.org/our-science/publications/peer-reviewed-papers/population-change-avian-predators-and-grey-squirrels

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