Farmers in Somerset and Gloucestershire are helping national bird charity the RSPB to investigate the decline of Britain's starlings.
Experts will research whether the birds have sufficient food and nesting sites in both counties.
Numbers across the UK have declined by 80% since 1979 and by nearly a third in the past 10 years.
Across Europe it is thought 40 million of the birds have disappeared over the past three decades.
"Our records show that we have lost more starlings across Europe than any other farmland bird," said Dr Richard Gregory, from the RSPB's bird monitoring section.
"Forty million starlings lost represents over 150 for every hour since the 1980s.
"This loss should be a wake-up call, because we ignore the decline of nature at our own peril."
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