BRITISH BIRDS OF PARADISE

CLICK HERE FOR THE NEW 'GARDEN OF EADEN WEBSITE' AND SEED SHOP

As with many things, familiarity breeds contempt and while we are lucky in Great Britain to have such a fantastic range of bird species – native as well as seasonal visitor – they are wrongly regarded as commonplace and therefore undervalued and often ignored.

Many of our native bird populations are struggling due to the loss of habitat, while others are finding that their once abundant food sources - insects, slugs and snails - have been drastically cut due to the industrial and private use of insecticides and molluscicides.

It is the combination of non-specific insecticides and light pollution that has caused the greatest damage causing a massive reduction in native insect populations upon which many of our native bird species depend on for their survival. Perhaps worse still is the slow creep of agro-chemicals into the food-chain, affecting both adults and their young from generation to generation - clearly the environmental lessons of DDT have not been learned.

While global warming has an influence on local habitats there is of course much that we can do to help preserve the local populations of birds that are most at risk. Bird boxes, food supplementation, wildlife ponds and sympathetic planting schemes that can all improve the local habitat, and create an all-year-supply of natural food. In suburban areas, an almost continual supply of suitable shop-bought bird foods has already helped to supplement the diets of a range of seed eating wild birds, but the fate of our insect eating birds is much less secure. Click onto Caring for Insect Eating Birds in Winter to find out more. Without the help of a concerned and interested public our native tit and finch populations would be in a far worse state.

It is of course an exaggeration to say that the beauty of our native birds is equal to that of the Indonesian birds of paradise, but they are still beautiful nonetheless. The side show above shows a small selection of birds that are still commonplace to our shores, but a number of these have already been in steady decline over the past 60 years. Try to imagine looking at them with fresh eyes or with the very real thought that some of these species may well become extinct in our lifetime.
.If we can’t value the life around us, the how can we expect to truly care about the environment at large.

For more information click onto:
Are Slug Pellets Poisoning Our Wildlife
British Government Creates Worlds Largest Marine Reserve Around Chagos Islands
Caring for Insect Eating Birds in Winter
Discovered - Giant Monitor Lizard
Discovered - the Language of Hyenas
Easter Island - a Lesson in Environmental Exploitation
Edible Crop Pollination and the Decline of Bees
Elephants - Can they Run or do they just Walk Fast?
Food Plants For Butterflies
Food Plants For Caterpillars
How do Elephants Communicate and Talk to Each Other?
How to Attract Bumblebees to the Suburban Garden
How to Attract the Hummingbird Hawk Moth
How to Grow Bird of Paradise Plants from Seed
How to Make a Butterfly Garden
How to Make a Wildlife Pond
Jellyfish Swarms - The Latest Man-Made disaster?
Light Pollution and the Decline in Bat Populations
Light Pollution and the Decline of Native Insects
Light Pollution - The Hidden Threat
Lost Frog Returned from Extinction
Nectar Rich American Wildflowers for Attracting Native Bumble Bees
Nectar Rich Plants for Attracting Long-Tongued Bumble Bees
Non-Native Invasive Species - The Japanese Knotweed
Pesticides Toxic to Honey Bees
Plants that Attract the Hummingbird Hawk Moth
Seed Bearing Plants for Attracting Wild Finches
The Decline of Butterfly and Caterpillar Habitat
The Decline of Insect Eating Birds
The Eagle Owl - Friend or Foe?
The Importance of Log Piles to Native Wildlife
The 'Native Trees' of England
The Plight of English Woodlands
What are the Natural, Native Predators of Vine Weevils
What are the Safe Organic Alternative to Slug Pellets
What can we do to Help Save the Rainforests
What is 'Slash and Burn' Farming and How does it Affect the Rainforests?
Which Native Animals Eat Slugs and Snails
Which Plants can Attract Bats into the Garden?
Why are Tropical Rainforests so Important?
Why Shark Fin Soup is Devastating World Shark Populations
Why Should we Protect the Rainforest?