THE house sparrow has taken top spot in this year's Big Garden Birdwatch - the world's biggest bird survey.

Nearly 400,000 people from across the UK spent an hour counting the birds in their garden and their records provide a valuable snapshot of the UK's garden birds.

House sparrow numbers have been relatively stable in recent years, although they are still massively down from levels at the beginning of Big Garden Birdwatch 26 years ago.

With an average of 4.56 sparrows seen per garden this year, compared to an average of 10 in 1979, the house sparrow has declined by 54pc.

Big Garden Birdwatch - results 2005