The miserable spring and summer weather has contributed to one of the worst breeding seasons on record for many of East Anglia's garden, woodland and farmland birds.

Volunteers for the Thetford-based conservation charity the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) braved the elements to collect data which was used to construct an accurate picture of breeding activities across the country.

The surveys were completed by visiting nests as part of the nest record scheme (NRS) or by recording the number of fledged young ringed as part of the constant effort site (CES) scheme.

Latest results from these BTO surveys show that many species struggled to raise young during 2012 – with the chaffinch hit particularly hard.

NRS organiser Carl Barimore said: 'Caterpillars appear to have been in short supply during the cold, wet weather and many of the woodland birds dependent on them had a poor season.

'Blue tit, great tit and chaffinch fledged 13pc, 18pc and 58pc fewer chicks respectively; this is the lowest productivity recorded for chaffinch in almost 50 years and the second lowest for great tit over the same period.

'Rainfall may have made hunting difficult for raptor and owl species too, and kestrel breeding success was also significantly lower than average.'

Results from the CES scheme showed that migrant birds also fared badly.

'All eight of the migrant species monitored by CES experienced the worst breeding year since the scheme began 30 years ago,' said organiser Allison Kew.

'These estimates relate to the numbers of free-flying juveniles ringed, so are likely to reflect losses in the nest and the low survival rates of young birds after they have left it – their inexperience in foraging and poor quality plumage is likely to be a disadvantage in wet, windy conditions. Wetland species such as reed warbler and reed bunting were also directly affected by flooding.'

Dr Dave Leech, a senior research ecologist at the BTO, said while populations could easily recover from a single poor season, he was concerned about how our birds would fare if these weather conditions were symptomatic of long-term climate change.

'There is no doubt that many fewer young birds fledged this year and current predictions of another cold winter suggest that survival rates over coming months may be low,' he said. 'This is likely to have a negative impact on abundance at the start of the 2013 season, but many of the smaller bird species are able to rapidly produce large numbers of young, and so have the potential to bounce back quickly after a single bad year.

'The worry is that the extreme conditions in 2012 were the result of a shift in the position of the jet stream and it is very difficult to predict how increasing global temperatures and melting of the Arctic ice will influence this in future. If these conditions become more frequent, they could have long-term consequences for Britain and Ireland's bird populations.'