Otago residents are being invited to take part in the fifth annual Garden Bird Survey, which starts today.
The national survey involves spending one hour sometime between today and July 3 recording the highest number of each bird species you see in your garden at any one time during the hour.
The survey is being organised by Landcare Research and is backed by the Ornithological Society and Forest and Bird.
Last year, the silvereye or waxeye, made a comeback in the South, again topping the Otago top 10 bird species list, with an average of 25.7 birds recorded per garden.
The previous year, in 2009, the house sparrow topped the Otago list. Rounding out the Otago top five were the house sparrow (8.9), blackbird (2.2), bellbird (2) and starling (1.8).
Nationally, the silvereye was narrowly first, followed by the house sparrow, starling, blackbird and chaffinch.
Last year, 187,858 birds in all species were reported in 4193 gardens throughout the country.
Survey organiser Eric Spurr, of Rangiora, praised the strong response from Otago last year, much of it from readers of the Otago Daily Times, after a survey form appeared in the paper.
A total of 732 survey responses came from Otago last year, more than double the previous highest number from this region (296, in 2008), and comprising 17.5% of the overall national returns.
