Leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd and Clwyd West MS Darren Millar is encouraging people to take part in the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, the world’s largest garden wildlife survey.  

Last year 29,495 individuals and teams of citizen scientists submitted their responses, counting over half a million birds in gardens, balconies, and parks across Wales. 

For RSPB Cymru, this provides an invaluable snapshot of the health of Wales’ most common bird populations. This year RSPB Cymru are aiming for over 30,000 people to take part in the survey. 

To take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch 2025, people need to watch the birds in their garden, on their balcony, or in their local green space for one hour at some point over the three days. They should only count the birds that land, not those flying over. 

Darren said:

“Since starting in 1979, Big Garden Birdwatch has since become a much-loved annual citizen science event, that gives the RSPB a valuable snapshot of how our garden birds are doing in Wales and across the UK. Over that time, 195 million birds have been counted and nearly 12.1 million hours spent watching and counting garden birds.   

“By taking part in the Birdwatch, you are helping to build an annual snapshot of how our birdlife is doing across the UK.

“I encourage people to join in this year’s event. All it involves is enjoying an hour relaxing in nature, and telling the RSPB the highest number of each bird species you see at any one time – not the total you see in the hour.

“Let’s make this year’s Birdwatch the most successful yet.” 

This year RSPB Cymru has an extra message around feeding garden birds encouraging hygiene measures to be followed to prevent disease spread. 

Many people from across Wales enjoy feeding the birds in their gardens and some species really do benefit from us putting out extra food for them, especially in winter. However, there is increasing evidence of negative effects in other birds, such as the spread of disease among finches. 

Following simple hygiene measures in gardens where food and water are offered can help keep our birds healthy. This includes routine cleaning of feeding stations and bird baths, moving feeding stations around the garden to prevent build-up of food or droppings on the ground and monitoring the food supply to ensure it meets demand. 

To take part in Big Garden Birdwatch visit www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch