Mr. Brian Caffrey:

There are a number of things we can do. One could say that birds are faring relatively well but in saying that, some species have been affected by larger-scale things like climate change regardless of whether they are in urban or rural areas. Those populations appear to be impacted. We can all play our part, as the Deputy notes, through things like putting up nest boxes, particularly for species that need them most such as swifts, which are on the amber lists, spotted flycatchers and other species that are in decline. It involves tailoring specific bird boxes for species that need help. There is a significant and growing body of research that shows that feeding birds in our gardens provides a very important resource to help the survival rates of birds over the winter and helps sustain bird populations.

Pollinators constitute a hot topic at the minute, and within our gardens we can all do a bit to plant more pollinator-friendly plants. This, from the ground up, has a significant impact because one of the things we see with regard to our bird populations is a tremendous shift to the north west with regard to some species, especially those that come from south of the Sahara to migrate here such as swallows, swifts, cuckoos, martins and warblers, which we think is very much driven by climate change. At a lower level, the significant decline in insect populations may be one of the factors there. These are significant challenges and we can all chip in and do our bit at community level and in our homes and gardens.