Action Plan: Garden Birds

Garden Birds is a broad group, which includes a wide range of bird species that are typically not truly urban but woodland birds that have adapted through loss of natural habitat. Those that have undergone declines in the UK in recent years and been awarded either red or amber status as birds of conservation concern are:

• Bullfinch
• Dunnock
• Goldcrest
• Songthrush
• Starling
• Swallow
• Swift

All the birds are seed eating or insectivores, or both. They often have a close relationship with man either recently or historically, due to man providing nesting sites or feeding opportunities (deliberately or inadvertently) which the bird makes use of, and in some cases has come to depend on. Garden birds can provide the main contact with wildlife for many people. Over the years man has become familiar with the presence of these birds and many of them have been viewed as common, however in the last century some of these species have undergone a crash in population levels, the exact reasons for which are not well known.