Recent reports

13 March 2014
Comments News and comment These are largely unchecked reports, not authenticated records This deals with January 1972, to which all dates refer unless otherwise stated. The only really significant weather feature in a fairly mild, wet month was a short spell of freezing north-east...
Read More

News and comment

13 March 2014
Comments News and comment Golden Jubilee The International Council for Bird Preservation was formed in 1922, mainly through the foresight of an American, T. Gilbert Pearson, then president of what is now the National Audubon Society; the inaugural meeting was held in London on 20...
Read More

Letters

13 March 2014
Comments Letters Woodcock and thrushes breeding in open and Snipe a m o n g trees In view of recent notes on Woodcock Scolopax rusticola nesting away from trees (Brit. Birds, 64: 76; 65: 30-31), it may be worth recording that at dusk on 5 th July 1971, when I walked ac...
Read More

Reviews

13 March 2014
Comments Reviews African Birds of Prey. By Leslie Brown. Collins, London, 1971. 320 p a g e s ; 12 black-and-white plates. £2.25. This well-produced, smallish book covers the 89 diurnal raptors and 31 owls which inhabit Africa. The author is, of course, a well-known...
Read More

Notes

13 March 2014
Comments Notes Shags laying two clutches Shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis have long been considered capable of producing two broods in one breeding season, but direct evidence of this is lacking (see The Handbook, vol 4; D. A. Bannerman, 1959, The Birds of the British Is...
Read More

Mystery photographs

01 January 1978
Comments Main paper Although plumage features are important in the identification of any bird, experienced field ornithologists tend to make much use of the way that it moves, its structure and its shape--the factors that go to make u p its 'jizz'. Mystery photograph 13 (...
Read More

Editorial

01 January 1978
Comments Editorials Few birdwatchers are systematists or have any real knowledge of taxonomy and the reasons behind scientific nomenclature. We all, however, make constant use of classification: even non-ornithologists can recognise a duck as a duck or a thrush as a thrus...
Read More

Stay at the forefront of British birding by taking out a subscription to British Birds.

Subscribe Now