Bring back our spring birds
Right now, we should be welcoming back swifts, curlews, puffins and turtle doves to their breeding grounds. But as they struggle to find safe places to nest, or enough food to feed their families, their numbers are falling away. They are here today, but could be gone tomorrow.
All these birds, and many others, are now on the UK's Red List, meaning they face severe declines and need urgent conservation action.
Their continued declines are not inevitable. Together we can save them. But time is not on our side. We must act now to stop threatened birds fading away.
Your gift can save threatened species in the greatest need
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Give swifts a place to nest
This is the time of year when we should be enjoying the sounds of swifts in the evening air. But they now often struggle to find nesting sites in the roofs of our modern buildings. That's one of the reasons why they're on the Red List for the first time.
Your support today can make a real difference by helping to create more 'Swift Cities' like Edinburgh and Exeter, where people are mapping their swift sightings, and providing more nesting places where these iconic visitors can raise the next generation.
Protect our seas so puffin chicks survive
UK seas should be a spring haven for puffins, but as climate change warms our waters, these tough little birds are struggling to find the sandeels they need to feed their puffling chicks.
Your support today could help map where puffins forage for fish, help us build the case for an outright ban on sandeel fishing in UK waters, and help call for rigorously enforced 'marine protection zones' to help puffins and other threatened seabirds, like kittiwakes.
Welcome turtle doves to our countryside
Acting together is already making a huge difference for turtle doves. After supporters like you helped highlight huge losses, they now have a real prospect for recovery. In 2021, for the first time, a temporary ban of hunting turtle doves was imposed in France, Spain and Portugal, saving an estimated one million birds in just one year.
Your gift can build on this exciting momentum, helping us ensure the hunting ban is continued in 2022 and beyond, and continuing work with hundreds of farmers and land managers in the UK to give turtle doves the breeding and feeding habitats they need to successfully raise more chicks. The more we do to help turtle doves now, the brighter their future will be.
Keep curlew nests and chicks safe
Curlews were Red-listed for the first time in 2015. Now, your support is helping the RSPB to participate in a four-year Curlew LIFE project to help save the species right across the UK. Protecting the nests of curlews and keeping their chicks safe from predators are both key to their recovery. That's why the LIFE project aims to create almost 5,000 hectares of protected habitat for curlews over five sites, from Glenwherry and Lough Erne is Northern Ireland, Conwy in Wales, Geltsdale and Hadrian's Wall in England and RSPB Insh Marshes in Scotland.
