This beautiful orange and brown butterfly is now a rare sight in the UK

The tiny firecrest vies with the goldcrest for the title of the UK's smallest bird. Once just a visitor, the firecrest can now be found breeding in woodlands in the south of England.

A streaky brown bird, the reed bunting can be found in wetlands, reedbeds and on farmland across the UK. Males sport black heads and a white 'moustache'.

A key species in the story of conservation, the avocet represents an amazing recovery of a bird once extinct in the UK. This pied bird, with its distinctive upturned bill, can now be seen on…

The house sparrow is a familiar, streaky brown bird of towns, parks and gardens. Males sport a grey cap and black bib, the size of which indicates their status.

This beautiful butterfly is one of our rarest, now mostly restricted to the western parts of the UK.

This beautiful beetle only arrived in the UK in 1960s but is now a common sight on garden herbs.

Despite being considered a 'weed' of cultivated ground, the seeds of the Creeping thistle provide an important food source for farmland birds, many of which are declining rapidly.

The herring gull is the typical 'seagull' of our seaside resorts, though our coastal populations have declined in recent decades.