THE number of birds visiting gardens in Southampton is on the decline, new figures have revealed.

The RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch showed the average number of birds seen in gardens across the city has dropped by 20 per cent in the last four years.

The charity is now appealing to Southampton residents to encourage more birds back into their gardens.

Sparrows topped the table of the most common birds, with an average of 2.63 birds spotted per garden, down from 3.37 in 2005.

Wood pigeons, blackbirds, blue tits and starlings were also frequent visitors to city gardens - but numbers have still dropped in recent years.

More than 800 Southampton residents took part in the survey, which took place over the weekend of January 26 and 27.

Hester Phillips, of RSPB South East, said the decline could be blamed on last year's wet breeding season and severe weather this winter.

She added the charity was concerned about the decline, and was urging residents to pick up a copy of the The RSPB's Homes for Wildlife project, which provides simple wildlife-friendly actions that people can carry out in their homes and gardens.

"The survey findings help us to understand more about the population trends of garden birds," she said.

Terrible weather' "We predicted that last year's terrible weather would be reflected by the Big Garden Birdwatch, and this seems to be the case, especially for blue tits.

"A snapshot in winter only gives part of the picture, but this year's results also suggest a further fall in sparrow numbers in some areas."

One success story however was the goldfinch, which made it into the top ten list of common birds for the first time.

Hester added: "Our gardens can be very welcoming to finches, especially where people put out food and provide a wildlife area where thistles and teasels are left to grow which also provide food."

The full UK-wide Big Garden Birdwatch results are available on the RSPB website. rspb.org.uk/birdwatch.