Hannah Bourne-Taylor's Naked Protest for Swifts
Clarkson's Farm star Hannah Bourne-Taylor, known as the 'bird lady', has revealed she walked through central London completely naked twice to draw attention to her campaign to protect swifts from extinction. The 195,000 Instagram followers saw footage of both walks, which she undertook to promote her government petition urging ministers to mandate swift bricks in all new-build homes.
Bourne-Taylor, who joined the fifth series of the Amazon Prime show in June, assisted Jeremy Clarkson in identifying birds on his farm and left him stunned when she revealed she had let a bird nest in her hair for 84 days. Her passion for birds drove her to take drastic action.
Why She Walked Naked
"When I realised that swifts' existence depends on securing national-scale cavity nesting habitat (& the easiest way to do that is for the government to mandate swift bricks so that there is one in every house), I launched a petition," she explained on Instagram. However, she discovered that for the government to consider a parliamentary debate, the petition needed 100,000 signatures within six months — something she felt was 'impossible for the ordinary person'.
"So that's why I launched the campaign naked," she said. "I hoped that by giving everything I had, there would be a strength in my own vulnerability - in my own conviction. No media would have covered a little bird petition if I had done everything the same but with my clothes on."
Petition Success and Government Response
Her bold move paid off, attracting widespread media coverage. The petition became the fastest-growing government petition of its time, gathering 109,896 signatures before it closed. This allowed her to repeat the walk alongside Lord Zac Goldsmith to attend a government meeting. Although the debate brought together MPs from various parties, the Tory government ultimately rejected the proposal. Bourne-Taylor noted that Labour had 'strongly supported' the legislation before blocking it last autumn, adding: "So the fight to save our swifts continues in England."
"If I thought it would actually work, I'd do it again," she said.
What Are Swift Bricks?
A swift brick is a specially designed, hollow brick built into the walls of houses and buildings to offer safe nesting sites for endangered swifts, house sparrows, and other cavity-nesting birds. They integrate seamlessly into brickwork, need no upkeep, and address the disappearance of natural crevices resulting from contemporary, airtight construction.
"Without swift bricks, it is likely that we will be the first country to lose a species that has existed for 50 million years," Bourne-Taylor claimed. "It's a reasonable & urgently vital ask backed unanimously by eNGOs."
Scotland made swift bricks mandatory in 2026, and Bourne-Taylor is now encouraging her followers to contact their local MPs and the Prime Minister to press for compulsory swift bricks across the rest of the UK.
