THERE has been much concern in recent years about a sudden drop in the house sparrow population in England – but now its common neighbour, the starling, has also gone into steep decline.

This is the time of the year when, traditionally, starlings gather together in huge flocks and, just before dusk, can turn to sky black in a swirling, whirling, twisting mass, a display that the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds describes as “the bird world’s answer to the Red Arrows.”

This gathering is known as a”murmuration” and takes place when migrating birds flying south from the harsh Scandinavian winters mix with local starlings. One of the most spectacular displays takes place over the Brighton Pier, where hundreds of bird watchers are gathering this week in anticipation.

It is estimated that there are some 40,000 birds in the Brighton display – but the RSPB says this is a mere fraction of the several hundreds of thousands which took part as recently as the 1970s.

Since then, the starling has gone into steep decline and is now on the RSPB’s “red list” of species in critical danger. The most likely cause of the decline, the society claims, is the increased use of farm pesticides which kill billions of leather jackets in farm pastureland, one of the starling’s principle food sources.