In March this year the government, as well as the devolved administrations implemented legislation that requires the mandatory registration of all poultry and captive birds.

The deadline is October 1 in England and Wales, and the September 1 in Scotland, and reduces the threshold where registration is mandatory from 50 birds to one.

After registration mandatory updates are required every 12 months. You can download a registration form here.

Those with pets such as budgies, parrots, canaries and similar species, which are kept indoors, or in dedicated bird houses, with no access to the outdoors will be exempt from the changes.

All bird keepers required to register their birds after the 1st October 2024

The government has stated that mandatory bird registration will aid in managing outbreaks of diseases like avian influenza and Newcastle disease, helping to reduce their spread in a national outbreak. This register will allow authorities to quickly identify all bird keepers within disease control zones, enabling more effective surveillance and faster lifting of restrictions, reducing disruption to trade following an outbreak.

This rule change is in response to the 330 cases of bird flu in the UK since 2021, with a great majority of this number being in backyard flocks. This highlights the need for backyard keepers and hobbyists to adopt better biosecurity.

Making sure you keep wild birds away from yours, changing your shoes and clothing, and disinfecting and washing them regularly after entering your bird pen or house, will go a long way to protecting your birds from disease.

New legislation for bird keepers