Hannah Bourne-Taylor

About Hannah Bourne-Taylor

Hannah is an Oxfordshire, UK-based author, nature conservationist, bird advocate, photographer, and campaigner known for her work protecting cavity-nesting birds, particularly swifts.
She was born in Dorset, England. Her childhood involved frequent moves (she lived in 19 houses across Britain) due to her parents’ jobs—her mother was a nurse and her father an ecologist—which fostered an early connection to nature and birds. Swifts, in particular, provided a sense of routine and wonder during her disrupted upbringing.
She studied at the London College of Fashion (2005–2008), earning a first-class degree in fashion photography. She worked as a photographer and former model before her conservation focus.
In 2013, she moved to Ghana with her husband, Robin Bourne-Taylor (a former Olympic rower, British Army officer, and recipient of the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross). As a dependent spouse without a work visa, she faced isolation and struggled with OCD. During this period, she rescued and hand-reared wild birds, including a baby finch (or similar fledgling) that lived in her hair for 84 days. This experience is central to her debut memoir Fledgling (2022), described as intelligent, moving, and poetic.
Hannah is the creator of #TheFeatherSpeech, a national campaign launched in 2022 for swifts and other red-listed cavity-nesting birds (house sparrows, house martins, and starlings). The campaign’s core demand is making “swift bricks” (special nesting bricks) compulsory in new UK housing developments. It has garnered significant attention, including a parliamentary petition and debate.
She is an award-winning campaigner (named on the 2024 ENDS Report green policymaking Power List) and has appeared on TV, podcasts, and in media. Her second book, Nature Needs You: The Fight To Save Our Swifts (2025), builds on this work.
To draw media and public attention to the cause, she conducted high-profile protests, including marching nearly naked (body-painted as a bird with feathers) from Speaker’s Corner to Downing Street in 2022. She has described the tactic as strategic rather than purely dramatic, inspired by figures like Lady Godiva, after weighing options for visibility. These actions generated publicity but also exposed her to online misogyny.