18-03-2026: Kingston University's 2026 RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch results

 The results are in

With the help of 9 wonderful volunteers, Kingston University managed to conduct 22 surveys for the RSPB's national Big Garden Birdwatch across 18 survey sites. The RSPB are still crunching their numbers, but they hope to release their numbers in April (https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/big-garden-birdwatch/info).

After a bit of a delay, I've done the number crunching on our collective sites and the results are in.

Over the course of 22 surveys, 9 volunteers counted a total of 541 birds on our sites in 2026. 

During the survey, the RSPB let you know how your counts compare to the national average number of birds counted when you submit your data. On Monday the 26th of Jan, the average number of birds people were seeing across the nation were 27 birds during a count. 

I have split our results into the sites where we observed more then the national average and sites where we saw less, if you click on the tables below, they should become bigger images. 

Kingston University sites where we saw above the national average.

Kingston University sites where we had below the national average.

Across all of our sites we were able to identify 31 species.  The site with the most species observed was Tolworth Court Meadow and Knoll area, with the amalgamation of 3 surveys resulting in 14 species recorded. The other side of the site along the railway and allotments had the second highest number of species at 13 from a single survey and this was also reflected at our Clayhill Halls of residence, which had 13 species spotted at the eastern end of the site around the scrub and tree habitat bordering the grassland there. Tolworth Court also had the highest number of individual birds on one survey with 115 birds, largely due to large flocks of three species spotted on the site. 

How many House Sparrows can you spot in the image below?

Now lets dive into the Top of the Spots for 2026.

In 10th place (really 6th because of all of the shared podiums)

Once again the position is held by the Blackbird. This year Blackbirds were spotted on more of our sites, spotted on 6 of our 18 survey sites, with the highest number spotted at Tolworth Court knoll and meadow area.

Screeching ahead into effectively in 5th place is the Ring-necked Parakeet found on 7 of the 18 survey sites this year. 

Holding rock steady to their fourth place ranking, found on 9 out of the 18 survey sites were the Rock Doves (aka Feral Pigeons, but these two were looking fairly chilled to me).

This years joint 3rd place podium rankings had a change of fortune both ways, with Blue Tits rising by 2 places and Magpies come down from last years second place position, with both found on 10 of our 18 survey locations. 

In a very crowded three way split, we had Great Tits, Robins and Jackdaws take the 2nd place in this years university count. These three species were found on 11 of our 18 survey sites, though I do think the Robin was bidding for 1st place with that bit of posing ;)

Finally, in joint 1st place this year, the Woodpigeon's appeared to have done some recruiting to fly up two spaces into 1st place. Where they joined our  Carrion Crows, who were so comfortable they just strolled into first place again, 

I do wonder how our top ten will fair against the main survey when those results are released. 

What were your top spots for the 2026 bird count?