About Us
Louise Spicer, our founder and a keen naturalist, noticed the rapid decline in farmland birds so decided to act in 2003 by setting up Bird Aid, now Farmland Bird Aid Network (FBAN). This West Oxfordshire-based charity has helped to feed our declining farmland birds during the ‘hunger gap’ from January to early May ever since. The charity has joined forces with a number of landowners to develop new feeding sites with keen volunteers to create a remarkable conservation project. This is now a coordinated NGO/citizen effort which is continuing to grow.
With advice from the RSPB, Farmland Bird Aid Network (formerly Bird Aid) has expanded rapidly in the last few years with over forty feeding sites. The charity’s success is thanks to a passionate and growing band of over forty volunteers and supportive landowners and farmers. In the past few years, new feeding sites have been created in Charlbury, Finstock, Hailey, Leafield, North Leigh, Stonesfield, Wilcote, Wootton, Taston and Enstone.
Scattered wheat, millet and rape seed helps to ensure linnets, yellowhammers and reed buntings survive during winter and spring when there is no natural feeding left.
Regular surveying suggests over 850 yellowhammers and chaffinches, almost 850 linnets and over 50 skylarks were fed over the last few winters.
The charity is run by a team of four experienced volunteer trustees: Genny Early, Jane Ellis, Hannah Bourne-Taylor, Anne Miller, Will Dennis and Toby Swift, with ongoing help and expert advise from Louise Spicer and Mike Kettlewell.
We are always looking to connect with more volunteers, land owners and farmers locally and further afield to expand our reach, since this is a national-scale issue that together we can combat through awareness, habitat restoration and supplementary feeding.