ON Thursday, the polls were tense, the voters were nervous - yet the candidates were flighty.

It was after all the election to chose Britain's favourite bird.

With the blue-tit, the robin and the blackbird all the front runners (flappers?), the as yet undecided contest for the best British bird was a chance for nature lovers to remind the country that the shape of the average British garden and hedgerow has changed dramatically over the last two generations. Where once the dawn chorus was a medley of many birds, today their numbers and variety are shrinking. For many, the beautiful and brilliant sounds of British birds are now nothing more than a distant memory from youth.

Speaking to the Sunday Herald, Bill Oddie, the twitcher and TV personality, remembered the wide variety of birds when he was young compared to the dearth today: 'As a teenager I lived on the edge of Birmingham. I used to go birdwatching around local farmland. In spring and summer there would be lapwings breeding in every field, skylarks singing all over the place and hedgerows with yellowhammers and whitethroats. In winter stubble fields attracted large flocks of finches and tree sparrows and, again, skylarks. There was also a considerable passage of skylarks in October, with large numbers - sometimes hundreds - migrating down the valley. Go to that area now and I would see only a fraction of that.'

The decline of many species of bird has been blamed on several different factors, some environmental and many man-made. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) say that much of the decline is due to intensive farming practices.

Bill Oddie shares this opinion, saying: 'Hedgerows have been removed, ditches filled, and fields have got bigger with no margins for wildflowers and insects. In addition greater use of pesticides and chemicals has reduced the insects and seeds on which birds depend.'

As well as this, reports from the RSPB and the BTO have shown that factors like Dutch elm disease and climate change have also played a part.

Chris Bailey, Advisory Manager at RSPB Scotland, added: "All hedgerow and garden birds need a combination of the "big three" - nesting sites, summer insect food and winter seeds.

'Garden birds have also faced a reduction in the quantity of the big three available to them. Paved over areas in gardens and cars parks have reduced the seeds and invertebrates available for birds to feed on and places for them to nest.

'Environmental impacts may well be a factor as too such as reductions in air quality. Climate change may also be altering the life cycle of birds' food sources, changing what food is available and when."

It is these factors which have contributed to the almost halving of breeding bird pairs in the last half-century.

The future is not entirely bleak, however, as Bailey explained: 'Hedgerow planting has increased in Scotland in recent years, which is great, as they support an abundance of wildlife. Previous losses of hedgerows have meant a decline in places to nest and find food and also the loss of important corridors linking isolated habitats.'

There have also been notable increases in certain species of bird such as the nutcatch. In 2005 nutchatches were ranked at 63 in Scotland in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch results, but this year they were at number 34. Equally, the cuckoo population is fairly stable in Scotland but declining elsewhere in the UK - almost three-quarters of the cuckoo population in England has disappeared over the last forty years.

To help with the conservation effort organisations like the RSPB and BTO work with farmers in Scotland to help protect a wide variety of vulnerable species.

Bill Oddie, though, thinks that not enough is being done: 'The existing NGO's and their individual supporters are well aware of the situation and are constantly lobbying for new regulations and protection. In the long run, however, it is governments that have to make it policy to take care of wildlife and wild places. There are not enough politicians - let alone ministers - who really truly care.'

Everyone, however, can try and help Scotland's dwindling bird population - and hopefully do their bit to bring about a return to the abundance of bird life fifty years ago. The RSPB's 'Giving Nature a Home' campaign has lots of practical projects for how people can make a space for wildlife in their garden and outside spaces such as building hedgehog houses, planting nectar rich plants, or making deadwood piles for insects and fungi.

Equally, you can get involved with the BTO, volunteering to record bird numbers, as without this information, it is far more difficult to know whether a bird species is in need of conservation.