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Annual bird monitoring is carried out in a number of Upper Hutt parks and reserves with the aim of monitoring changes in the diversity, abundance and distribution of native birds in these reserves over time. This report compares the results of the 2011 and 2012 surveys and finds that the larger and better connected reserves support the greatest diversity of species. Species diversity was also significantly higher in Upper Hutt reserves than in Wellington City reserves. Silvereye, grey warbler and tui were the three most frequently encountered bird species in both years and encounter rates for bellbirds and fantails increased significantly between 2011 and 2012. In the latter case, this likely represents a population recovery following a catastrophic mortality event that occurred during winter 2011