WITH its colourful golden crestfeathers, it is nicknamed the “king of the birds” in folklore. But numbers of the Goldcrest - which is the UK’s smallest bird - have fallen across the last year, according to a long-running annual garden survey. The British Trust for Ornithology’s latest BTO Garden BirdWatch reveals that overall, Scotland’s smallest birds declined in 2020, noting also that the Wren and Long-tailed tit were all recorded in fewer Scottish gardens in 2020, compared with the previous year. Smaller birds are particularly vulnerable during periods of hard frosts and prolonged snow cover and many suffered during the “Beast from the East” in winter 2018.