The RSPCA has asked people with gardens in the UK to take small steps to help wild birds, as annual statistics show breeding bird populations have declined by 5% between 2020 and 2025. The charity highlighted growing challenges facing wild birds, including disappearing habitats, extreme weather, disturbance and deliberate cruelty.
Declining bird populations
Farmland birds such as turtle doves and tree sparrows have been particularly impacted, with populations falling by 63% since 1970, while seabird populations including Arctic skua, herring gulls and shags have declined by 52% since 1986. The RSPCA warns that wild birds are having to navigate an increasingly challenging environment.
Pressures on birds include increasingly prolonged periods of hot, dry weather, which can make food and water harder to find, as well as wildfires destroying habitats, loss of nesting sites and the spread of disease. Alongside these environmental challenges, some birds are also facing the consequences of deliberate human cruelty, the charity said.
Reports of cruelty
The RSPCA said it 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 of the 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 approaching, the RSPCA is encouraging people to make their gardens and outdoor spaces safer and more welcoming for wild birds. The charity 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 fresh, good-quality unsalted peanuts from November to April - but avoiding seeds and peanuts when the weather becomes warmer in May, when the risk of disease spreading is higher.
Other steps include planting bird-friendly plants such as sunflowers, ivy and thistles, positioning feeders well above cat height and away from places where predators could hide, keeping cats indoors where possible when young fledglings are present, giving nesting birds plenty of space, and considering putting up a nest box. The RSPCA is also encouraging people to sign up as a Wildlife Friend - a flexible, remote volunteering role - or take part in one-day activities such as 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.
