Spotlight on Nadeem Perera: From inner-city London to global conservation 

In celebration of Black History Month 2025, Nadeem Perera – RSPB Ambassador and co-founder of Flock Together – shared his story with over 120 RSPB staff and volunteers from around the organisation. Nadeem shared his journey from growing up on a council estate in inner-city London to becoming one of the UK’s most recognisable advocates for nature and inclusion.  

Left feeling energised and inspired by Nadeem’s enthusiasm, we wanted to share some of our highlights with you.  

Flock Together is now a worldwide movement, with chapters in New York and Tokyo. But did you know the idea for the birdwatching club first took flight thanks to a conversation on a football field?  

Nadeem, a youth football coach, co-founded Flock Together with Creative Director and fellow RSPB Ambassador Ollie Olanipekun in 2020. The pair first made contact thanks to one of Nadeem’s football student’s parents, who suggested the two both had an enthusiasm and creativity that ought to be brought together. Nadeem and Ollie bonded over a mutual love for nature on Instagram, and they set about creating Flock Together. 

“Ollie said he’d always had this idea to start a birdwatching club for Black people, he just needed the expert to do it with. I said I was in. We had fifteen people on our first walk, but even then, we already knew it was special! It was a great mix of people that loved birding, but also some people were just creatives and knew nothing about birding and wanted to feel a part of a community.” 

Nadeem’s infectious enthusiasm for birds first began in east London and in Sri Lanka. From geckos to Toque Macaques, Nadeem recalled the encounters that kickstarted his lifelong love for wildlife.   
 
“My mum was from Sri Lanka, and she would make a point to take us there. It’s one of those places you can’t escape the presence of wildlife there. I was exposed to this environment for three weeks each summer, and I’d come back to east London and wonder where all the wildlife had gone. So, I decided to look harder. And the harder I looked, the more I realised that it actually was here too.” 
 
He shared the different ways he connected with nature in the inner-city with the RSPB team, and the importance of local green spaces on the Docklands, where foxes and badgers in the overgrown grasslands helped him to nurture the connection – along with finding nature in unexpected places. 
 
‘I was raised in a council estate flat in East Ham. It was in a tower block, really high up, and I remember one day seeing pigeons nesting on the balcony. I remember seeing the eggs vividly, I remember seeing the crudely thrown together nest – but that really stuck in my memory, and as a result my little brother’s first word was “bird!” 

Nadeem spoke about the experiences that shaped his path into conservation, the challenges of navigating a sector where people of colour have historically been under-recognised, and how these experiences motivated him to create change. His story highlights the power of representation and community in breaking down barriers to accessing the natural world.  
 
“My mum was doing the best she could to keep us on the straight and narrow, so she moved us out to suburban Essex. One day, I was sat on a bench in a graveyard there, which might sound dark, but it was a green space and it was really quiet. For the first time, I could hear myself think.” 
 
On spending time in this green space, Nadeem said he found the silence to be very welcoming of who he was at that time. He’d been facing troubles in his teenage years, battling with the feeling of not fitting into the education system. “Here, for the first time, I felt like I belonged.”  

After supressing his interest in birds through his secondary school experience, a close encounter with a Green Woodpecker in this very graveyard helped to reignite Nadeem’s love of birds. 

Inspired by Nadeem’s own experiences and the restorative power of nature, Flock Together uses birdwatching and collective experiences in nature to connect people, support wellbeing, and foster a sense of belonging outdoors. Growing into an international network, the group encourages people from all backgrounds – especially people of colour – to reclaim and reimagine their relationship with nature.  
 
Nadeem realised the scale of the potential for Flock Together on the group’s third walk. “About 60 people turned up! That’s when we realised that Flock Together was massively needed. There were no spaces before us that existed like this.” 
 
The collective has continued hosting monthly birdwatching walks, attracting attendees with all different levels of interest.   

Nadeem’s energy reminds us what’s possible when passion meets purpose. His drive to make conservation a movement that truly includes everyone is what keeps this work alive, but it’s not something he, or we, can do alone. 

If we want a future where nature thrives, we need everyone’s voice, everyone’s care, and everyone’s action. This means standing alongside people like Nadeem; people who are reimagining what belonging in nature looks like and showing that connection to the environment and then taking action benefits all of us. 

So, lend your voice. Support the people who are making change. Share their stories. Get involved.  

Explore and support the work of Flock Together, a community redefining how we see nature as a whole.

And see Nadeem in action – coaching young people and championing community in the RSPB film Return: a 50-year story of repair, resilience and White-tailed Eagles.