Big Garden Birdwatch

For readers in the UK, this is the one everyone does. On a weekend in late January you spend an hour counting the birds that land in your yard, local park or even on a balcony, then send in the highest number of each species you saw at once. Running since 1979, it has turned a nation's window-watching into a long record of how common birds are faring. More than 650,000 people took part in 2026, and the House Sparrow topped the count for the 23rd year running, even though its breeding numbers have fallen sharply over the past 50 years.