It was once as much a part of a country churchyard as the yew tree, the unkempt tombs and the creak of the lych gate.

Flitting from gravestone to gravestone in search of insects, the spotted flycatcher - sometimes known as the 'parson's bird' - were found in every village in the land.

But according to a survey, the once common birds are vanishing fast. In the last 14 years, numbers of spotted flycatchers have dropped by 59 per cent, while in many English counties they have disappeared completely.

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On the edge: A spotted flycatcher snatches a meal out of thin air, but it's species has dropped in numbers by 59 per cent

Wildlife experts say they are one of a host of woodland birds being devastated by changes to the countryside and the ways that forests are being managed.

They include the willow tit - whose numbers are down 77 per cent, the wood warbler - down 57 per cent and the pied flycatcher - down 54 per cent.

'We are really concerned about the spotted flycatcher,' said Graham Madge of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

'These used to be seen in almost every churchyard and vicarage garden. They are woodland birds, but they love large open gardens where they can feed on the wing. They are in very severe trouble.

'The fact that woodland birds like this are vanishing is disturbing. These have more claim to be British birds than any others because they have been living in our woodlands since the end of the Ice Age.'

The decline is highlighted in the latest Breeding Bird Survey published by the RSPB, the British Trust for Ornithology and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

The survey is based on sightings from nearly 3,000 volunteers. Last year they counted more than a million individual birds and 220 species.

Experts are unsure why woodland birds are suffering, but believe changes in tree and forest management are partially to blame.

Birds do best if woods have a diverse range of environments - from airy glades of young saplings to dense areas full of ancient trees and dead timber.

Modern woodland managers remove dead wood - which provides a home for the insects that birds feed on. There has also been a sharp rise in the number of grey squirrels and deer, which quickly strip out saplings and young bushes.

Farmland birds, such as the turtle dove and grey partridge, are also in decline.

However, some birds appear to be thriving. Since the first survey in 1994, sightings of stonechats have soared by 278 per cent. The birds are year-round residents and have benefited from a decade of mild winters.

The number of buzzards is up 56 per cent after a successful campaign to stop gamekeepers killing them.

The biggest success story is the red kite. After coming close to extinction, a re-introduction programme has seen numbers rise to 1,000 breeding pairs.