Our Wild Things columnist Eric Brown gets a shock as he digests some of the latest bird population trends published in the most influential ornithological yearbook.

Every year when The BirdWatchers Yearbook lands on my doormat, I unwrap it quickly and turn to a certain article.

Every year I'm shocked and saddened reading the book's annual examination of bird population trends. The 2023 Yearbook is no exception.

Author James Lowen reveals some sombre statistics about the birds in your garden and beyond in this 43rd edition.

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The latest UK Red List of endangered birds has increased by 11 since its previous update and now stands at 70 out of 245 regularly occurring species.

Additions include swift (58per cent decline since 1995), house martin (57 percent since 1969), greenfinch (62per cent since 1993) and Bewick's swan (winter population down from 7,100 in 2010 to 1,278 in 2020). Just 2,100 pairs of turtle doves may be left in the UK according to a 2021 survey.

Unless it performs a U-turn soon, the familiar chaffinch, once the most numerous bird in England, may join them after being hit by the same virus as greenfinches.

Luckily there are organisations around, such as Birds on the Brink, a charity whose remedial work is described in a three-page Yearbook article. They battle to stop global species declines plunging beyond 40 per cent.

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These are disturbing figures even, without deaths from H5N1(avian flu) being fully factored in. Yet, as usual, editor Neil Gartshore includes good news to balance the bad in his Yearbook. The first two osprey chicks in southern England for 175 years were raised at Poole Harbour. Bitterns are also on the increase along with cattle egrets, great egrets and honey buzzards. Rare visitors such as bee-eaters and black-winged stilts bred while golden eagle numbers in Scotland soared. Red kites increased by an astonishing 1,935 per cent and encouragingly the numbers of persecuted hen harriers in England increased for the sixth successive year with 119 fledged - the highest total for more than a century.

However there is far more to the Yearbook than population trend figures. It is the annual encyclopedia no birder can afford to be without. Other articles feature best bird books of the last year, top birding blogs and local RSPB groups. The diary has space for daily bird sighting records. There are checklists for ticking off birds, butterflies and dragonflies as you see them, the most up-to-date wildlife reserves guide available, a 2023 birding events diary, tide table information and pages of contact details for booksellers and publishers, optical dealers and manufacturers, holiday companies, clothing suppliers, bird food suppliers and a huge section of contacts for UK-based and overseas bird clubs and organisations.

An absolute gem.