North-East bird lovers have been invited to help discover which bird will be crowned the number one feathered visitor to gardens this winter.

The RSPB which is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Big Garden Bird Watch -- the world's biggest survey of its kind -- is asking people to help out in the annual survey this weekend.

Last year around 8,000 people in the North-East took part in the survey and the house sparrow was the most common garden bird. County Durham's 'top ten most common garden birds were: 1) house sparrow; 2) starling; 3) blue tit; 4) blackbird; 5) chaffinch; 6) collared dove; 7) greenfinch; 8) great tit; 9) robin; 10) dunnock.

Big Garden Birdwatch takes place every year during the last weekend of January and aims to find the most commonly seen garden birds and provides the RSPB with an important health check on garden bird numbers.

Simply spend one hour counting the birds in the garden or local park, and record the highest number of each bird species seen at any one time. The morning is the best time to look, when the birds are out and about feeding after a cold winter night.

David Hirst of the RSPB North-East office, said: "It's an incredible achievement for a survey to reach its 25th anniversary." Numbers of some familiar garden birds are falling.

The latest survey shows starling numbers dropped by 67 per cent and house sparrow numbers by 52 per cent in the last 25 years.

For further information and online resources to help people with their Birdwatch, the RSPB website www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch has all the information.