BIRDS of prey are increasing, while once common garden birds, such as the starling and house sparrow, are declining, conservation groups have said.

The results are published in a new review of the UK's wild birds, prepared by Government and non-governmental conservation organisations, and entitled The Population Status of Birds in the UK.

According to the report, since 1996 efforts to protect some of the country's rarer birds, such as red kite and osprey, have been so successful that five species, whose populations have doubled, have been removed from the danger "red list".

Red kite were reintroduced at Harewood, near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, several years ago and, despite incidents of poisoning, have continued to increase.

Because the small UK populations of red kite, osprey, marsh harrier and merlin have doubled, they have been moved on to the amber list.

Marsh harriers are doing well in some parts of the region, although are still relatively rare, merlins are doing well on upland areas, such as the Northumberland hills and the North York Moors, and osprey are occasional visitors to the region.

The report says that the more "common" species, such as starlings and house sparrows, are included in the "red list" of species showing significant declines, reductions mirrored across the North-East and North Yorkshire.

A further 121 species have been placed on the "amber list" and 86 on the "green list".

In addition to the house sparrow, lesser spotted woodpecker and yellowhammer have been moved from the green to the red list.

And, in addition to starling, marsh tit, willow tit, ring ouzel and grasshopper warbler have been moved to the red list from the amber list because of similarly rapid declines.

Ring ouzel used to be common on the northern hills, particularly the Yorkshire Dales, but are now much rarer.

The red list now contains 40 species, an increase of four since 1996.

Dr David Gibbons, chairman of the group which co-ordinated the review, said: "While it is encouraging to see some of our rarer species doing well, reversing the declines of widespread and common species, like the yellowhammer, house sparrow and song thrush, remains a key challenge for bird conservation today.