Young children have a natural interest in wildlife.
We can guide them into the ways they can help birds in the winter by feeding them, or in the spring by putting up nest boxes. These days, with the decline of birds, particularly on farmland and in the wider countryside, people's gardens can be real little nature reserves. And its a great place to start perhaps a lifelong interest if you've got children. The survey aims to find the most commonly-seen garden birds in the UK, and since it began more than 20 years ago, it has been highlighting the fall in numbers of once common birds such as the song thrush. Now even populations of house sparrows and starlings appear to be declining.