The RSPCA is calling on people with gardens across the UK to take simple steps to support wild birds, following the latest annual population figures showing continued declines. The UK breeding bird population indicator fell by 5% between 2020 and 2025.
Threats facing wild birds
The charity highlighted mounting threats including vanishing habitats, extreme weather conditions, disturbance and deliberate cruelty. Farmland birds such as turtle doves and tree sparrows have been among the hardest hit, with populations plummeting by 63% since 1970. Seabird populations, including Arctic skua, herring gulls and shags, have dropped by 52% since 1986.
Birds face increasingly lengthy spells of hot, dry weather making food and water harder to find, as well as wildfires decimating habitats, the loss of nesting sites and the spread of disease. Some birds also bear the impact of deliberate human cruelty, the charity added.
Reports of cruelty
The RSPCA received 876 reports involving cruelty towards wild birds in 2025, including incidents involving pigeons, corvids, gulls, swans and ducks. In July and August 2025 alone, the charity received 359 reports involving wild birds - almost twice as many as the 179 reports received during the same period in 2024, and the highest summer total recorded in the past five years. Weapons including airguns, catapults, slingshots and crossbows have been used in some attacks.
Dr Rebecca Machin, wildlife expert at the RSPCA, said: "These figures are a sobering reminder that many of our wild birds are facing a perfect storm of threats, and an increasingly challenging future. Wild birds need suitable places to feed, nest and raise their young, as well as access to food, water and safe habitats. Yet these basic needs can be threatened by habitat loss, extreme weather caused by climate change, disease and human disturbance."
How to help birds in your garden
With colder weather on the horizon, the RSPCA recommends providing fresh, clean water and changing it every day if possible, cleaning feeders regularly and drying them thoroughly before refilling, and offering suitable seeds, grains and unsalted peanuts from November to April - while avoiding these when the weather becomes warmer in May when disease risk is higher.
The charity also suggests planting bird-friendly plants such as sunflowers, ivy and thistles, positioning feeders well above cat height and away from hiding spots, keeping cats indoors when young fledglings are present, giving nesting birds plenty of space, and considering putting up a nest box.
The RSPCA is also calling on people to register as a Wildlife Friend - a flexible, remote volunteering role - or participate in one-day activities including litter picking, supporting pet food banks and fundraising.
Dr Machin added: "It might feel as though the problems facing wildlife are too big for one person to make a difference, but gardens and other green spaces can provide vital refuges for birds, particularly when natural food and water are harder to find. By giving birds somewhere safe to feed, drink, shelter and raise their young - as well as giving them space, and reporting incidents of wildlife being subjected to cruelty - we can all play a part in helping them."
All wild birds are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and it is illegal to deliberately kill, injure or take one, except under licence. Anyone found contravening this could face up to six months imprisonment and an unlimited fine.
