A warming climate is causing a fall in numbers of some birds wintering in the UK, the RSPB has said. One of those cited is the shelduck.

The RSPB warns that numbers of seven regular visitors to the UK during the winter months, including the mallard, are in decline.

Turnstones are another of the birds seen less in the UK in winter. This group is pictured in the Stour estuary in Essex in January.

The RSPB says urgent action is needed to reverse declines in populations of birds such as the Greenland white-fronted goose. This one is shown at Loch Gruinart reserve, Islay.

Here an adult ringed plover is pictured at Lochranza, Isle of Arran. The bird is one of those in decline in British winters along with the pochard and dunlin.

The good news is that numbers of some birds wintering in the UK has shown a marked increase. These black-tailed godwits are at Inner Marsh Farm reserve, Cheshire.

The RSPB has put the rise in wading bird numbers down to action by conservationists. These avocets are on mud at Exminster Marshes reserve, Devon.

Declines of Bewick's swans - shown here feeding with whooper swans in a ploughed field - are particularly noted in Northern Ireland, says the RSPB.