Nature's Voice

The Big Garden Birdwatch results have been published and although starlings remain the second most commonly spotted bird in our gardens there has been a further worrying decline in their numbers.  Their population is down 79 per cent since the first Big Garden Birdwatch in 1979. In this episode of Nature’s Voice Jane Markham talks to RSPB scientist Dave Buckingham about why this might be happening and to Liberty Smith – one of the film makers behind a phenomenally successful YouTube video recording their chance encounter with a dramatic murmuration of starlings while they were canoeing in Ireland.