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Nature in towns and cities

A visitor exploring and taking a picture in the urban garden at Castlefield Viaduct, Manchester
A visitor exploring the urban garden at Castlefield Viaduct, Manchester | © National Trust Images/Annapurna Mellor

Towns and cities are full of nature. This spotter guide will help you identify and discover some of the plants and wildlife in your street, garden or local park.

Nature is a great adapter and as towns and cities have grown, lots of animals, birds and plants have become part of urban life. Others have always thrived in busy, built-up areas.

With more and more of us living in towns and cities, green spaces are even more important for urban nature and people’s wellbeing. We are working to help preserve, improve and create more areas for urban nature through projects like Nature Towns and Cities and Castlefield Viaduct.

This guide will help you find out more about some of the nature we already share our towns and cities with, how they’ve adapted to living alongside us and how we can continue to support the nature around us.

Animals

A fox walks through the parkland at Croome, Worcestershire
Fox in the parkland at Croome, Worcestershire | © National Trust Images/John Hubble

Foxes

Foxes are one of the most well-known adapters to urban life. While foxes living in rural areas eat around 95% meat, in cities and suburbs they're more omnivores. They scavenge on our waste food and help keep rodent populations under control by hunting rats and mice. Urban foxes keep well hidden during the day but you might smell their musky territory marks. They're more adventurous at night when you can spot one strolling down a street or hear their calls on autumn evenings.

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Birds

A photograph of a kingfisher sitting on a branch in Wetland at Morden Hall Park
Kingfisher at Morden Hall Park, London | © Frederick Bryan

Kingfishers

Kingfishers have been spotted mainly in rural areas for generations, however, they're making the move into cities and towns. They've been making their homes in places like London and Manchester, taking advantage of fish populations that are starting to thrive in cleaned up lakes, canals and rivers. Even in urban environments, where the birds appear to have become more used to humans, spotting them can be difficult. Watch out for a flash of bright blue and orange sitting on low branches, diving into the water or darting across the banks.

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Insects

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly on a flower at Attingham Park, Shropshire
Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly at Attingham Park, Shropshire | © National Trust Images/Matthew Oates

Butterflies

There's been an 80% decline of butterflies in the UK since the 1970s, but more urban green spaces can help them recover. Top butterfly friendly plants include native flowering species such as field scabious and black knapweed. British butterflies are well adapted to these plants, plus they make colourful additions to wilder areas of gardens and parks.

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Plants and trees

Buddleia in flower at Castlefield Viaduct, Manchester
Buddleia in flower at Castlefield Viaduct, Manchester | © National Trust Images/Annapurna Mellor

Buddleia

While buddleia is a garden plant, it is able to grow almost anywhere. You might spot them on rough ground, along train tracks or even in the walls of abandoned buildings. The plant's seeds are winged so when the wind catches them they are distributed all over towns and cities. While buddleia is counted as an invasive species, their purple flowers attract butterflies, moths and other pollinators making it an important source for food and sustaining urban insect life.

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