THE house sparrow has emerged as the North-East's most common bird - taking top spot in a record-breaking Big Garden Birdwatch.

While the sparrow was most common in County Durham, Northumberland and the Tees Valley, the RSPB tally showed the starling to be leading the table in Tyne and Wear.

Almost 11,500 people in the region took part in the January survey, with the results in line with national findings.

In the North-East, house sparrows were in pole position in gardens in Tees Valley (6.26 per garden), County Durham (5.70 per garden) and Northumberland (5.95 per garden). The national average was 4.8 per garden.

Nationwide, a record breaking 409,000 people watched their gardens and local parks during the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch on January 24 and 25.

About 8.6 million birds were recorded and 247,000 gardens surveyed.

The results revealed that collared doves are the biggest bird garden winners and are now five times more common in our gardens than in 1979, when the first RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch survey took place.

The doves, which first arrived in Britain as recently as the 1950s, are now firmly established in our gardens and have increased by a staggering 525 per cent since 1979. In this year's survey, they were seen in 62 per cent of gardens and now hold 7th spot in the UK garden bird league table.

The four biggest losers since the first Big Garden Birdwatch in 1979 have been the starling, house sparrow, song thrush and blackbird.

Emma Boor, of the RSPB North of England region, said: "The RSPB is delighted so many people in the North-East took part in this year's survey and we are grateful to everyone who got involved."