Barbican Living
Barbican bird life
The City Corporation have singled out three bird species which need saving in the City: the Black Redstart, the Peregrine Falcon, and the Sparrow. The sparrow appears to be rapidly dying out right across Britain and no-one knows why. Numbers in London have more than halved in the last decade.
Black Redstart
The Black Redstart is rarer than the Osprey or the Golden Eagle. It is estimated that there are less than 100 pairs in the whole of Britain. But some of them live in the Barbican! They are tiny birds which look just like robins but with red and brown coloured tails. They like to nest in cavities in areas with plenty of insects. ‘Brownfield’ sites such as derelict buildings and rooftops make ideal homes for them. The gradual redevelopment of London has dramatically reduced potential habitats.
You may sometimes see a Black Redstart flitting among the bushes in Speed Garden. It really is a delightful little bird and we ought to do what we can to nurture it in our estate.
Peregrine Falcons
At the other end of the scale, a Peregrine Falcon has in the past been seen in the City. Peregrine Falcons are the fastest animals in the world – they can reach 124 miles per hour as they stoop down on their prey from great heights.
They were an endangered species, but they have gradually taken to living in urban areas, where they are less likely to be persecuted by farmers or egg collectors. They seem to be happy nesting in buildings. Battersea Power Station and Tate Modern have both been homes to falcons.
We urgently need falcons, and plenty of them, to rid us of pigeons, which are no better than rats with wings but without the good manners to stay out of sight.
City bird habitats
One attractive solution to the progressive concreting and tarmacking of our world is to make developers put ‘green roofs’ on the tops of their office buildings to provide new habitats. 30 million square metres of green roofs have been created in Europe and the US in first four year of the new Millennium. That’s about 12 square miles. The City is also insisting on green roofs for a number of proposed developments.
There are also ‘vertical habitats’, the surfaces of walls, roofs, terraces and window boxes. This sounds like really scraping the barrel. But the old City Wall is a special habitat for several species of fern, such as the Rusty Back Fern, and many types of wallflowers, as well as being ideal for some birds like the Black Redstart, which really are under pressure.
Common s parrow
IN THIS SECTION
Biodiversity in the Barbican
Barbican animal life
Barbican bird life
Moor hen with young in Bryer Lake