Camera traps reveal 'heartening' farmland bird numbers

Cameras installed on feeders on farmland in the Isle of Man have recorded "heartening" evidence of Tree Sparrows.

Manx Wildlife Trust set up 21 feeding stations to provide food for the sparrows and "give them security through the breeding season". The project, along with improved recording of the species using them, found the island was home to more Tree Sparrows "than previously thought", according to the trust.

Farmland bird officer Rob Fisher said he was "thrilled" to have evidence of the species for the first time in a decade and explained that the devices had been helping to "monitor their movements with as little human disturbance as possible".

A Tree Sparrow visits one of the feeders on the Isle of Man (Isle of Man Wildlife Trust).

Tree Sparrow on the Isle of Man

The data from the project, alongside the results from a ringing session in an unharvested sunflower field, had "blown us away", Mr Fisher said, who confirmed a total of 69 birds were ringed, which included 14 Tree Sparrows – the first to be ringed on the Isle of Man since the early 2010s.

A trust spokesman said the charity believed "this little bird is the most threatened of all our island's birds" and "urgent conservation action" was needed to save it.

The trust spokesman added: "Now we can see where to focus further conservation efforts to put the species into recovery locally. This is an excellent start, but there is still much to do."

The scheme was launched following the local extinction of Yellowhammer.