Protect our birds, Defend our nature

Protect Our Birds. Defend Our Nature. This is the RSPB’s rallying cry to nature-lovers all over the UK to stand with our birds, in the face of a natural emergency.

From soaring Golden Eagles to darting Kingfishers, speedy Swifts to chattering House Sparrows, colourful Puffins to graceful Red Kites, UK birds bring us moments of joy in our parks, gardens, and wild spaces. But they need our help now. Today.

Since the 1960s, more than 30 million birds have vanished from UK skies. These birds play a vital role in the natural world but also give us flashes of delight and wonder with their colour, their energy, their song. A combination of urbanisation, industrial-scale farming, climate change and new diseases are devastating the habitats and food sources that many birds rely on.  Many species are seeing their populations crash. But there’s hope. Together, we can turn their fortunes around.  

I will help protect and defend

Many of us can remember a world when nature was more abundant than it is today. When the call of the Cuckoo, the scream of Swifts and the cries of Curlew were much more common. But we know nature can recover. Together we can create a wilder future for us all. 

We know, because we’ve done it before. Take Red Kites. In just a few decades they’ve increased from around 50 breeding pairs to a staggering 12,000 spectacular birds in the UK. 

Our hardworking staff and volunteers have action plans for our most threatened species. We help many more at our 200+ nature reserves across the UK. We have nest-guardians, heathland-restorers, persecution-investigators, migration-route-mappers, disease-specialists, and forest-wardens. They’re all working tirelessly to turn things around. But they can’t do it alone. 

With your help, together we can bring back rich and varied bird life to our land and seas. You can help us breathe new life into our natural world. Nature in all its glory can thrive again.  

No matter who you are, where you live, and whether you can spare £1 or £100, you can protect the birds you love and defend the natural spaces they call home.

I will help protect and defend

Small yet mighty, Swifts make one of nature’s most incredible journeys. Each year, they fly from the savannahs and forests of Africa to the towns and cities of the UK, and back again – a round trip of at least 14,000 miles. Their screaming call is one of the most evocative sounds of summer. But in some places their calls have fallen silent. Sadly, Swifts are on the Red List of conservation concern, declining by 62% between 1995 and 2021. We don’t have the full picture about why Swift populations are crashing, but we think lack of nest sites may be partly the cause. That’s why we’ve been working with other Swift experts to design the ‘Swift brick, a special brick with a cavity for Swifts to raise their chicks in. We’re also helping Swifts by carrying out research, supporting people to take action in their community and asking people to log local sightings on Swift Mapper, so we can help protect existing nest sites.   

I will Protect Our Birds, Defend Our Nature

Puffins are colourful and clownlike and one of our most endearing birds. However, they’re on the Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern Red, at risk of global extinction. They’re threatened by predators eating their eggs and chicks and a loss of food made worse by overfishing. That’s why we’re campaigning for more protected areas to be created, to safeguard the most important places for Puffins, both on land and at sea. We’re also protecting important nature reserves for Puffins to help ensure they have safe places to raise their chicks.

This iconic species is Scotland’s national bird. Once widespread around the UK, they became the subject of persecution in the 18th and 19th centuries. By 1850, they’d been wiped out in Wales and England. However, the two World Wars helped them recover a little, as gamekeepers went away to fight. Today, most of the UK’s Golden Eagles live in the Scottish Highlands and the Outer Hebrides. England’s last resident Golden Eagle disappeared in 2015. Despite being protected by law, they’re still illegally persecuted: between 2007 and 2022, there were 22 confirmed incidents, including 14 Golden Eagles that were poisoned. 

The RSPB works in numerous ways to help Golden Eagles, including work by our investigations team who gather evidence to expose bird crime and work with the police to try to bring criminals to justice. We also campaign for better protection and on our nature reserves and across the wider landscape, we’re helping to restore and manage habitat so that it can support the prey that Golden Eagles need.

The vibrant azure and copper feathers of the Kingfisher make them one of the UK’s most colourful and instantly recognisable birds. But blink and you’ll miss them – they dart along rivers and streams at high speeds. RSPB nature reserves and our care-taking teams provide safe wetland havens for these special birds and their fishy prey, all year around including at Lakenheath Fen in Suffolk, Rye Meads in Hertfordshire, Fairburn Ings in West Yorkshire, or Old Moor in Barnsley.

They’ve lived alongside humans for thousands of years, and they’ve also taken the top spot of the Big Garden Birdwatch for more than 20 years. But House Sparrows are a lot rarer than they used to be. Since 1970, almost 30 million House Sparrows have vanished from the UK, which means they’re now on the UK Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern. They’re doing particularly badly in cities but are one of the birds which really benefit from nature-friendly urban-gardening. The RSPB focuses on sharing information about nest boxes, planting wildflowers, and letting areas of your garden grow wild to try and encourage more people to create space for birds like House Sparrows.

Red Kites are now a familiar sight, soaring high in the sky. They’re one of the UK’s best success stories, with the RSPB playing its part in their recovery. In just a few decades, they’ve gone from being on the brink of extinction to much higher numbers – there are now around 6,000 pairs of Red Kites in the UK. Their spectacular recovery shows that with clear and targeted action, we can help struggling species. However, there’s still work to be done. Despite their success, they are still victims of illegal persecution, so like with Golden Eagles, much of our work on Red Kites focuses on this.

Our natural world is full of connections, with all of our wonderful wildlife dependent on other species to survive and thrive. This means when we work to protect key species like Puffins and Swifts and restore landscapes to work for species like Kingfishers and Golden Eagles, we also help a whole host of other wildlife. From the plants to the sandeels to the butterflies to the bees, when you help protect the species mentioned here, you’re also helping many other birds and an abundance of other creatures great and small.

Thank you.