Our photographers brought the natural world to the fore, with pictures of wildlife and the efforts to conserve them across the globe Continue reading…
Swifts and house martins join UK red list of endangered birds
RSPB warns wildlife is in freefall with 70 of Britain’s 245 bird species now seriously at riskThe red list of Britain’s most endangered birds has increased to 70 species with the swift, house martin, greenfinch and Bewick’s swan added to the latest ass…
Kickstart for bad birdwatchers: joining an expert-led tour on the Thames
Hugh Thomson identifies as a ‘bad birdwatcher’: someone who likes birds, but doesn’t really know much about themOnce or twice a year I’ve been gifted with the sight of a kingfisher flashing past, a mesmeric blur of blue far too exotic to belong in Brit…
Norfolk white-tailed eagle reintroduction project cancelled
Cancellation follows reports local estate owners were worried about predator’s impact on other birdsA pioneering project to return white-tailed eagles to Norfolk for the first time in 200 years has been cancelled at the last minute to the dismay of con…
You’ll never look at those beady eyes the same way again
Once you see a seagull swallowing a rabbit, you can’t unsee it. Gulls gulp down squirrels, rats, puffins, goslings, pigeons, fish, sharks,
and starfish, and hunt yet
more
pigeons and even octopuses. In the great circle of life, octopuses in turn drown …
‘Tiny little balls of pure joy’: why the superb fairywren took our 2021 bird of the year
With their glorious blue plumage, these common urban birds have been a comfort while we’ve been at home during the pandemicAustralian bird of the year: how they finishedDownload the poster as PDF here or JPEG hereSee all our bird of the year coverage h…
‘The water used to be up to your armpits’: birds starve as Turkey’s lakes dry up
Drought, rising temperatures and poor farming practices are taking a devastating toll on the country’s wildlife“If we stood in this spot a few years ago, the water would be up to your armpits,” says vet Isa Agit, standing on sun-hardened and cracked mu…
‘Rogue’ paddleboarders and kayakers threaten seabird sanctuary
Human activity disturbs nesting of puffins and rare roseate terns at Coquet Island in NorthumberlandA bird sanctuary island in Northumberland, home to Britain’s rarest nesting seabird, is being threatened by an influx of “rogue” paddleboarders and kaya…
A birder’s eye view of Kakadu: ‘Don’t give up until you go to bed’
A far cry from twitching, at Bird Week in Kakadu national park, Alexis Buxton-Collins finds a chance to slow down“There are two rules you need to follow on board,” Luke Paterson informs me as I step on to a large flat-bottomed boat. The first is to kee…
Young country diary: the puffins had their lunch, then I had mine
Lundy, Devon: From the ferry we saw a festival of seabirds, but the puffins were the luckiest spot of allAboard the MS Oldenburg to Lundy, I sat next to Jamie, an ornithologist studying the island’s sparrow population. Jamie helped me spot and identify…