Nests were found in roofs and behind gutters in houses of all ages. The aim of the survey was to look at the nesting sites of house sparrows to see where they prefer to nest, and if there might be a connection between nest sites and their population decline. From the results it seems that the most favoured site for nests was in roofs of houses, and that when nesting there the age of the building did not matter. There are more houses in the UK now than in 1972, and so from this survey we can conclude that a lack of nesting sites is not a major cause for the decline in the house sparrow population over the last 28 years. However, although we had sightings of over 1000 nests, it is still quite a small sample size to be absolutely sure that this is the case.
Further research needs to be carried out to establish why their numbers are falling so dramatically.
We also need to look at other possible causes for the decline, like magpie predation or pollution and lack of food, to work out why house sparrows are less common now than they were back in the 1970s. Thanks to everyone who took part in the survey. It was a great success and our friends at the RSPB will be able to compare your results with future surveys. Find out about the current UK Wild survey.