Welcome to British Birds

British Birds publishes ground-breaking articles on identification, distribution, migration, conservation and taxonomy, and is the place to report significant ornithological sightings and events. The publication is widely regarded as the bird journal of record in Great Britain.

Published monthly, British Birds is an invaluable resource for birders and professional ornithologists. Contributors include both professionals and keen amateurs. Content is always abreast of current ideas and thinking, yet written in a clear and simple style that is easy to interpret.

May 2013 cover

What’s in the latest issue? May 2013

  • BB eye
  • News & comment
  • The changing status of the Great White Egret in Britain

  • Nesting behaviour of the first breeding Great White Egrets in Britain

  • The breeding biology of the Common Buzzard

  • Obituary: Oscar Merne
  • Letters
  • Notes
  • BBRC News
  • Reviews
  • Recent reports
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The Unfeathered Bird, by Katrina van Grouw

This is a remarkable book! Large format, well presented, well written, beautifully illustrated with the authors own line-drawings. But (and it’s a big ‘but’), it is all about birds with their feathers off!

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Gillnets: a fatal attraction for seabirds

A study published today by BirdLife scientists and marine biologist Ramunas Žydelis in the journal Biological Conservation, reveals that a staggering 400,000 birds are killed each year in gillnet fisheries. This number exceeds the estimated toll of bird deaths documented in longline fisheries. This is the first time the massive scale of this problem has been laid bare – making it clear that urgent action is needed to tackle it.

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The Rutland Water Ospreys

The bulk of the book is taken up with highly readable year-on-year accounts of the project, from the initial preparations back in 1995 through various milestones such as the first release, the first returning bird and the first successful breeding. Lessons are learnt along the way and there are some notable setbacks described with real feeling by those directly involved…

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The number of seabirds recorded washed up on beaches in two incidents along the English Channel, covered in polyisobutene (PIB), has passed 4,000. Now, leading wildlife conservation and animal welfare charities and the UK Chamber of Shipping, supported by the wider industry body MaritimeUK, have come together as a single voice to call for an urgent review of the hazard classification status of PIB…

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The RSPB has today welcomed a recommendation ruling out, yet again, proposals for an airport in the Thames Estuary. The Transport Select Committee stated the plans for a new hub-airport in the estuary are too expensive and environmentally damaging; with specific mention of the hundreds of thousands of birds that call the estuary “home”…

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The breeding biology of the Common Buzzard

In a long-term study of the Common Buzzard in Avon, territorial pairs were counted every year (1982–2012) and full breeding performance was recorded for 20 years…

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Cuckoo update

The latest news of BB shows that he has covered the last remaining miles north from the midlands, to reach Loch Katrine, where he was caught last year, joining Chance, another of the BTO Cuckoos, in the same area.

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Nesting behaviour of the first breeding Great White Egrets in Britain

The first recorded breeding of Great White Egrets in Britain occurred at Shapwick Heath NNR, Somerset, in 2012…

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