Ornithology – Page 3 – Hoopoe

Book review: What an Owl Knows

***** A hoot of a book
Leon Vlieger, NHBS Catalogue Editor

Owls are one of the most enigmatic groups of raptors, in part because there is so much we still do not understand about them compared to other birds. Nature writer Jennifer Ackerman previously wrote the critically acclaimed The Genius of Birds. In What an Owl Knows, she reveals the creature that hides under that puffy exterior, peeling back the feathers layer by layer to show our current scientific understanding of owls. She has interviewed scores of scientists and owl aficionados as part of her background research, making this as much a book about owls as about the people who study and love them. A captivating and in places touching science narrative, this book is a hoot from beginning to end.

Owls are everywhere in the human imagination and, Ackerman argues, have always been: “We evolved in their presence; lived for tens of thousands of years elbow to wing in the same woods, open lands, caves, and rock shelters; came into our own self-awareness surrounded by them; and wove them into our stories and art” (p. 235). For all that, their nocturnal lifestyle makes them hard to study and they have long been—and in many places still are—wrapped in superstition. Ackerman dedicates a chapter to such beliefs and the harms that frequently flow from them. Fortunately, the tide is turning. Thanks to the tireless efforts of a dedicated cadre of scientists, conservationists, and numerous volunteers, a far more fascinating creature emerges from the contradictory tangle of ideas that humans have held about owls.

A red thread that has been subtly woven through this book is the importance of understanding animals on their terms. Ed Yong’s An Immense World is one recent example of this welcome trend amongst science writers and Ackerman appropriately starts with a chapter on owl sensory biology. What is it like to be an owl? Though this question can never be fully answered, that should not stop us from trying our hardest. Vision and hearing are obviously important to owls but the book has plenty of surprises up its sleeve once you start digging into the details: from the magnificent facial disk that acts somewhat like a parabolic reflector to gather sound, a hearing system that does not seem to age, to the fact that owls can see ultraviolet light. At night. With rod rather than cone cells (like pretty much every other bird).

The same question motivates research on owl vocalisations as “a hoot is not just a hoot” (p. 81). Owls utter a profusion of yaps, squawks and warbles and Ackerman paints a lively portrait in words. Barn owls have “a raspy hiss that sounds like a fan belt going out on your car” (p. 82), while the tiny Flammulated Owl breaks the link between body size and vocal pitch, sounding like “a big bird trapped in a small body” (p. 82, quoting ornithologist Brian Linkhart). These sounds can reveal an awful lot about the individual owl and its relationship with other owls in the landscape. Ackerman criticises some of the research on owl intelligence. They cannot pass the string-pulling test, a common test in ethological research in which an animal has to pull on a rope to reel in food that is out of reach. The idea is that it tests an animal’s understanding of cause and effect. But is this a fair test or does it “point to the limitations of our definitions and measures of intelligence” (p. 261)?

The most intimate insights have come from rescued owls that can no longer be returned to the wild. Many researchers have ended up caring for an individual and becoming intimately familiar with them. Gail Buhl, a leading authority on training rehabilitated captive owls, here explains five important things that she has learned. One particularly poignant observation is that owls might appear calm and stoic around humans, but having paid close attention to their body language, Buhl concludes that “they’re experiencing the same stress as other raptors, but they’re internalising it” (p. 228). This has major consequences for how even well-intended trainers and rehabbers ought to behave around owls. “We need to treat them not as mini-humans in feathers, but as their own entity” (p. 231), Ackerman writes, before throwing in a beautiful quote from naturalist Henry Beston. In his words, wild animals “are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time” (pp. 231–232).

Following on directly from her last book on bird behaviour, there are fascinating chapters here on the behaviour of owls: their courtship and breeding, their parental behaviour, their roosting, and their migration. Yes, many owls are migratory and some species can cover surprising distances. Ackerman makes a fantastic case for the value of long-term monitoring programmes to establish reliable population estimates. This is vital data for conservation efforts and is often missing. And sometimes what we think we know is wrong, as in the case of the Snowy Owl. Where initial estimates put the global population at some 200,000 birds, satellite tracking has revealed that they are actually a single population moving around the whole Arctic Circle, resulting in duplicate counts. Revised estimates now put the figure at a mere 30,000 birds.

Ackerman relies on the input of numerous scientists and volunteers. As such, this is as much a book about the people who study owls. I was delighted to hear more from Jonathan Slaght (his book Owls of the Eastern Ice is magnificent). Other stories tug on the heartstrings and none more so than that of Marjon Savelsberg. A Dutch musician trained in baroque music, her dreams came crashing down when she was diagnosed with a heart condition that consigned her to a mobility scooter. When she stumbled on the website of the Dutch Little Owl Working Group, she quickly became one of their most active volunteers, revealing a skilled ear for analysing owl calls. Suddenly, she had a new career and a new group of appreciative ecologist colleagues: “[I] realised I was still a musician. All the skills that I learned, all the talent I have, I can still use, just in a different way” (p. 105). It is a powerful story of redemption-by-owl.

Ackerman carefully balances these two facets: the scientific insights that she has carefully distilled from research papers and interviews, and the personal stories of those who study and love owls. As a result, What an Owl Knows is compulsively readable and readily accessible for those who lack a scientific background in ornithology.

You might also be interested in reading our Q&A with Jennifer Ackerman in which we discuss owls’ reputation for wisdom, the incredible research that is shedding more light on their lives, and the mysteries that still remain.

Author Interview with Andrea Hart and Ann Datta: Birds of the World, The Art of Elizabeth Gould

Throughout her life, Elizabeth Gould’s work was appreciated mostly through her husbands projects documenting the birds of the world, including John Gould’s Exotic Birds, and she was therefore often not recognised under her own name. Following her tragic death at the age of 37, her artistic talents were nearly forgotten, and her name was completely unfamiliar in the art world.

Birds of the World: The Art of Elizabeth Gould is an incredible, one of a kind volume brought to you by Andrea Hart and Ann Datta, offering a remarkable tribute to Elizabeth’s artwork, reputation and skill. Containing over 200 beautifully detailed and scientifically precise illustrations depicting birds from 19th-century Europe, South America, Central America, Africa, Asia, and Australia, as well as previously unpublished artworks and an introduction to Gould’s life and achievements, this book is a lasting legacy for one of the greatest bird painters in history.

The authors kindly took the time to answer our questions about the inspiration and research behind the book – read our Q&A below.

Could you tell us a little about how you first began studying Elizabeth Gould’s work and the drivers behind embarking on this book project?

The Natural History Museum was initially approached by the publisher, Prestel, early last year asking if we might consider working with them on a book on Elizabeth Gould. As Andrea had already published a book on the women artists represented in the Museum’s collections and Ann has published a significant work on the correspondence of John Gould, this felt like a wonderful opportunity to bring the spotlight to Elizabeth and highlight her story and the incredible artist she was.

How did you gather the work for this collection? Did you have access to some of Elizabeth’s original plates?

The Museum’s Library and Archives has an incredible collection of books, manuscripts and artworks and is particularly strong and comprehensive in taxonomic works on natural history. Our rare books collection therefore has sets of all the Gould’s published works, including those published following Elizabeth’s untimely death. While we held some examples of Elizabeth’s original works already, notably the ones she completed for William Jardine, we were incredibly fortunate to have been permanently allocated an album of her and John’s original works through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme of Arts Council England. This publication therefore gave us a wonderful opportunity to share some of these historically significant original drawings with a wider audience, and to further appreciate her artistic talent.

Do you have some favourite images among the plates Elizabeth made?

This is a really tricky question as most of the illustrations that we chose are most of our favourites! Ann specifically likes the bowerbirds, the Narina Trogon, the quetzal and the Australian wren and Andrea became quite fond of the toucans (but also had to include a magpie).

It’s clear from the biography of Elizabeth Gould in your book that she was incredibly industrious and hard-working, and that she experienced a great deal in her short life during a remarkable period in history. Do you get a sense that Elizabeth Gould paved the way for more women to work as artists in this field?

There is no evidence that Elizabeth Gould was influential in inspiring other women to become bird artists due, probably, to her short life. After her death in 1841, Gould’s folios were continued seamlessly by the draughtsmanship of Elizabeth’s successor, Henry Constantine Richter. Only those who knew the Goulds intimately would have been aware of her early contribution to the success of the folios. John Gould went on producing bird books for another 40 years, their contemporaries died and few questioned who was the ‘E’ in the ‘J & E Gould’ plate credits in the earlier books.

Also, although Elizabeth may have been a promising artist as a young woman, it was not an easy career path to succeed in, and she chose to become a governess with more security. Elizabeth probably would not have become a bird artist had she not married John. John had the scientific knowledge to identify the birds in the preserved, dried skins and provided sketches to guide Elizabeth’s meticulous watercolours. They were truly an equal partnership.

During Elizabeth’s lifetime, plants were a much more popular subject for women artists to take up than animal subjects, and a few women who were Elizabeth’s contemporaries were successful in this line. But in general, there were few opportunities for women to follow a successful career in art.

I found it fascinating that many of Elizabeth’s plates are made using a lithographic process. I wonder if you could elaborate a little on that process and the time it would have taken to produce an individual plate?

All Elizabeth Gould’s published plates for John Gould were made by the lithographic process. Lithography seems a very strange process but in the 19th century it was adopted by hundreds of aspiring artists of all subjects – history paintings, genre scenes, topography and natural history. The lithographic method dominated print and book plate production in the 19th century replacing the more expensive engraving process. By using lithography, artists could make monochrome prints of their original paintings which they could sell to the public – the rising middle classes who wanted affordable art to hang in their homes. Learning and doing the lithography themselves had two advantages for the artists: total control of the print-making process and avoiding the expense of hiring a lithographer. Those artists who mastered the technique, such as George Scharf, had no need to go to the extra expense of adding colour as they could create great delicacy of tones and lines in landscapes and street scenes etc, just by adding shading and stippling effects on the stone. Some of the most acclaimed natural history artists such as Edward Lear (contemporary of Elizabeth) and Joseph Wolf learned lithography. Lithography was especially well-suited to reproducing bird plumages, from soft down to large feathers.

The process of lithography consists of drawing or painting with greasy crayons and inks on fine-grained limestone blocks. At the lithographic printer, where the stone would be taken after the artist had finished, the stone would be moistened with water. The parts not covered by the crayon would become wet while the others where the greasy drawing was made would repel the water and remain dry. In a special lithographic press the printer would rub an oily ink with a roller over the stone. The oily ink would adhere only to the drawing but be repelled by the wet parts of the stone. After a sheet of paper was pressed against the inked drawing an exact copy of the original on the stone would be transferred to the paper but in reverse. The process would be repeated until the requisite number of prints was taken after which the stones would be cleaned for the next person, although the stone with its original drawing could be preserved for several years. The stones were very heavy. A Gould plate measured 22 × 16 inches. A stone measuring 18 × 22 inches would be about 3 inches thick and weigh 100 pounds.

The Art of Drawing on Stone, courtesy of archive.org

The lithographic printer Charles Hullmandel was responsible for all Elizabeth’s plates. His book, The art of drawing on stone (1824), has a vignette on the titlepage of a woman working on a stone. The first prints that came off his printing press – proof plates before lettering – were sent to Gould to approve. Then they went back to Hullmandel for him to add lettering to the stone according to Gould’s instruction (title = bird name, credits to the names of the artists, lithographer and printer). The proof plate after lettering, still a monochrome print, would go back to Gould again for her to colour to match her original watercolour. This artist’s colour proof would go to Gabriel Bayfield, the proprietor of a firm of colourists used for all Elizabeth’s plates, for his employees to copy the proof print on the requisite number of copies of each plate that Gould ordered.

Using this complicated and time-consuming process, each title took several years to complete. The books were sold by subscription (maximum number of subscribers often 250) who received parts, perhaps four times a year, and each part might contain 20 hand-coloured plates. The time taken to produce a lithograph would depend on the competence and confidence of the lithographer, and the complexity of the subject.

Elizabeth’s life contained many intense hardships. Aside from her incredible artworks, is there much record of her personal life and experience, such as in letters and diaries?

Very little extant information exists about Elizabeth with only about 15 letters dating between 1838 and 1840 surviving, all of which are now preserved in the Mitchell Library in Sydney, Australia. They were written by Elizabeth to her mother and cousin who had moved into her house in London to look after the children while Elizabeth and John were in Australia. The letters record some details of their visit including the people she met, especially Sir John and Lady Franklin, who accommodated them for nearly 12 months in Tasmania. Other topics include some of the problems faced by European settlers, e.g. acquiring servants, schooling, and the adverse climate, John’s collecting trips and his helpful Aboriginal guides, and making plant drawings. She writes proudly about her new son Franklin, born in Tasmania in Government House, and regularly enquires about the health of her mother and children. She does, however, reveal profound sadness at being away from her three young children in London.

In addition, there is one earlier letter written by Elizabeth in 1827 to her mother when she was working as a governess in London before her marriage. Only a fragment of a diary written by Elizabeth over the few days from 21st August to 30th September 1839 is known. It was written after she had left Tasmania and travelled to New South Wales to stay with her brother Stephen Coxen. In it she describes seeing several unusual birds.

From other sources it is possible to glean a few snippets about John and Elizabeth’s life in London. For example, she travelled with John to visit museums in Europe, and she probably accompanied him on some visits to Sir William Jardine’s estate. In a letter to Stephen, John Gould wrote in May 1841 that all the family had gone to stay in Egham for four months (Egham was then a village in the country).

In what ways does the industry of art for scientific publications differ today? Are there any similarities to the time in which Elizabeth was active?

Elizabeth Gould’s bird drawings served the scientific community. Accuracy of posture, colours and pattern of plumage and external anatomy were particularly important, alongside the impact of an attractive image, all of which are still required for taxonomic identification today. This could be achieved by painting the figure on a branch or on the ground according to its natural habits, often in a profile position. For Elizabeth, we believe, she would have started with a pencil outline, following the sketch that John would have made to assist her assemble a life-like figure from a dried bird skin. Elizabeth’s first meticulous drawings were rather conventional figures of very static birds – a style which persisted for many years until it was broken by John James Audubon in the early 19th century. Audubon spent many years in the field in North America and was the first to successfully paint the birds in their authentic natural habitat. Influenced by Lear and Audubon, Elizabeth would gradually develop her technique to produce more lively birds reaching a pinnacle in the Birds of Australia with the inclusion of appropriate flora and landscapes.

Today, an aspiring artist might attend art school before specialising in natural history art. Those who progress onto becoming wildlife artists would still observe their subjects in the wild and have additional equipment and technology to assist them, including binoculars and digital cameras to record and perfect their art. The detail required remains the same in terms of studying the subject’s internal and external anatomy and showing in their illustrations the required detail to be able to determine differences between species.

Bird art, however, includes many different styles and techniques which can change according to the artist’s preferences or the client’s requirements. There is, for example, a particular style used in field guides to compare large numbers of species on a page. Bird monographs, on the other hand, might just focus on a particular family and devote a whole page to an image of just one species showing male, female and juveniles, and so there is endless variety depending on the nature of the publication. Some bird artists, such as John Busby, also have a uniquely ‘casual’ style that is perfectly capable of depicting birds accurately and recognisably, but is very different from that of a more traditional modern bird artist such as the brilliant Robert Gillmor, who sadly passed last year. Those that illustrate for scientific purposes would also, just like Elizabeth, need recourse to examining bird skins or taxidermy in museum collections at some stage in their work.

Digital photography has certainly made images of birds and the natural world more widely available for guides and species identification, but there is still definitely a demand for artists to illustrate new species and produce illustrations and detail that is not possible to achieve with a camera.

Do you have plans for any future projects or publications that you’d like to tell us about?

There are so many other collections and artworks held by the Natural History Museum that would be amazing to research and publish on. For Ann, who did publish a significant volume on the correspondence of John Gould, she has some additional research papers to complete and, if time permits, would like to publish a biography of Thomas Hardwicke, who was an army officer and naturalist in India. Andrea would like to work on the botanical artist Worthington George Smith and the natural history artist Denys Ovenden in addition to developing a new temporary exhibition on artworks in the Richard Owen collection at the Museum, for display in the Museum’s Images of Nature Gallery in 2024.

Birds of the World: The Art of Elizabeth Gould was published by Prestel in September 2023 and is available from NHBS – Wildlife, Ecology & Conservation

Interview with Stephen Moss, author of The Owl: A Biography

The fifth and latest book in Stephen Moss’s captivating Bird Biographies series takes us on a nocturnal journal into the mysterious world of owls. Covering the seven species that can be found in the UK: the Tawny, Little, Barn, Long-eared, Short-eared, Snowy and Eagle Owl, this beautifully written and wide-ranging book effortlessly interweaves facts about their biology and ecology with snippets of folklore and tales from the author’s own experiences around the world.

Stephen Moss is a naturalist, author and broadcaster well known for his work with the BBC Natural History Unit working on landmark programmes such as Springwatch and The Nature of Britain. He currently holds the position of Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and is also President of the Somerset Wildlife Trust.

Stephen recently took time out of his busy schedule to answer some of our questions about the book. We also chatted about the precarious status of the Eagle Owl in Britain, the likely impacts of the climate crisis on owls and his plans for continuing the Bird Biographies series.

A huge amount of research must go into writing a monograph such as this one. Did you learn or discover anything particularly surprising about owls during the process?

I always learn a huge amount about the subjects of these bird biographies! No matter how much you think you know about a bird’s lifecycle and cultural and social history, they always surprise you. Even really common species such as the Robin and Wren lead lives that we don’t totally understand. Because this book is the first in the series to include more than one main species (plus some material about other owls around the world) I learned something about every species – from the exact details of how Little Owls were introduced into the UK, to the many folk names of the Barn Owl, to how Tawny Owls dominate popular culture about owls. All absolutely fascinating, and will hopefully delight the reader!

What do you think are the most commonly held misconceptions about owls?

I think the main misconception about owls is that they are very rare – in fact there are about 50,000 breeding pairs of Tawny Owls in the UK, which is far more than Kestrels! Of course the reason we assume they are rare is that we hardly ever see them, because they are so nocturnal. I have seen Tawnies during the day, but only a handful of times in my entire lifetime. Other owls, of course, are far more diurnal (Little and Short-eared) or what birders call ‘crepuscular’, which means they are usually seen at dawn or dusk (Barn Owl). Only the Long-eared is as nocturnal as the Tawny – perhaps even more so, which is why we hardly ever see them! We also think of owls as friendly – or at least friendlier than hawks and eagles, which always look so fierce – perhaps because their eyes face forward, just like ours. And yet owls are lethal predators as well.

The final chapter in the book looks at the future of owls. How much do we know about the likely impacts of the climate crisis on owl populations in Britain?

Like any birds, owls are especially vulnerable to the climate crisis, and especially the unpredictable weather patterns, extremes of temperature, rainfall and drought, and the effects these will have on habitats and food supply – especially at a time when all bird species are facing issues such as persecution, pollution and habitat loss – and in the case of owls, also light pollution. And of course the Snowy Owl, which once bred in the northern extremities of the UK (on Fetlar in Shetland, where I saw one more than forty years ago) has now disappeared as a British breeding bird, and is very unlikely ever to return, as I explain in the book. Snowy Owls globally are also uniquely vulnerable to climate change, as they are the most northerly of all the world’s owl species.

I found the chapter on the Eagle Owl to be particularly captivating. However, opinions on its right to reside in the UK appear to be divided, even amongst conservationists. Leaving aside the argument about whether the species can be considered native or not, do you think concerns about its impact on other wildlife are justified?

This is a tricky one; and I do outline the arguments for and against Eagle Owls in Britain in the book. In some ways their impact on other wildlife is a red herring: as a top predator, their numbers are unlikely to ever rise so high that they cause major impacts on native species; indeed, if we want to save Hen Harriers (the occasional prey of the Eagle Owl) we would be better off dealing with their illegal persecution, rather than blaming the Eagle Owl.

Is there a species of owl you would still love to see in your lifetime?

Of all the world’s owls, I would love to see the largest – Blakiston’s Fish Owl of eastern Asia – and of course the smallest, the Elf Owl of North America. My son James lives in Japan, so perhaps I can look for the Blakiston’s Fish Owl when I visit him next year. But I’ve still only seen about 40 species of owl – about one in six of the world’s species, so there are plenty more to go!

Finally – what is occupying your time at the moment? And do you have plans to continue this series of bird biographies?

I’m just coming to the end of my dream job – teaching the MA in Nature and Travel Writing at Bath Spa University. I’ve led the course for eight years now, and loved working with such talented students and colleagues, but now it’s time to hand over to someone else, and spend more time exploring other projects. And yes, I’m working on a new bird biography – of one of my favourite birds, yet one that many people dislike – I’ll leave people to try and guess what that might be! I’ve got several ideas for future volumes and other ideas for books for the future. But I also want to spend more time with my grandson Sammy, who has just turned one, and get him into birding – and also travel, to see birds of course, in the UK and around the world.

The Owl: A Biography was published by Square Peg in October 2023 and is available from nhbs.com

Author interview with Lee Raye: The Atlas of Early Modern Wildlife

The Atlas of Early Modern Wildlife is a ground-breaking volume compiling the observations of early modern amateur naturalists, travellers and local historians for the first time. Drawing on over 10,000 records, this book looks at the early modern state of wildlife in Britain and Ireland, the era before climate change, before the intensification of agriculture, before even the Industrial Revolution. The book presents maps and notes on the former distribution of 153 species, providing a new baseline against which to discuss subsequent declines and extinctions, expansions and introductions. This remarkable resource will be of great value to conservationists, archaeologists, historians and anyone with an interest in the natural heritage of Britain and Ireland.

Lee Raye is an associate lecturer at the Open University and a Fellow of the Linnaean Society, specialising in the history of wild animals and plants in pre-industrial Britan and Ireland. We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to speak with them about what inspired them to write this atlas, what the most difficult aspect of creating this book was, what their future plans were and much more.

What inspired you to write this atlas?

Several years ago I worked for the RSPB. I went on a weekend induction to The Lodge in Sandy, Bedfordshire, and had a walk around with the reserve archaeologist. He explained that, although it was simple enough to know which animals had declined and gone extinct in the historical period, there was a lack of clarity about how and when this happened. I realised that I already had some of the answers he needed. Around that same time, as a research project, I was translating and analysing the records of wild animals and plants from a single 17th-century natural history book, Robert Sibbald’s Scotia Illustrata (1684). That source is really valuable because it was contributed to by so many people and contains so many important records. For example, there are records of the Great Auk, the Bustard and the Angel Shark amongst the animals and Darnel, Shepherd’s Needle, and Greater Water-parsnip amongst the plants. While doing this project, I started making a list of other comparable texts from the same time period, and to my surprise I realised there was a whole understudied genre of them! I realised that if I combined all of these sources together I could give a decent estimate of the distribution of species in the 16th-18th centuries.

Greater Water-Parsnip by Jeremy Halls via Flickr

Do you think it’s possible for us to restore our wildlife to the condition it was in early modern Britain or has our landscape changed too drastically?

When we are doing conservation work it’s really important that we have a strong baseline to work against, otherwise we don’t know when we are restoring biodiversity and when we are just adding species to an environment. I think the early modern period is a good choice of baseline for two reasons. First, it comes before some of the most alarming declines in biodiversity which followed trends like the industrial revolution, the 20th century agricultural revolution, and the gamekeeper culls of raptors and mammalian predators of the nineteenth and early 20th century. But it was still a period when all of Britain and Ireland was managed for human needs, including some big cities. Secondly, there are a lot of sources available from the time period, so the Atlas of Early Modern Wildlife could reconstruct the fauna found at the time. But we are never going to be able to perfectly return to that baseline. The islands of Britain and Ireland are even more intensively managed and exploited now, and we need to keep that up to provide for the human population. The early modern period was also a time when there was a temporary climate change, the Little Ice Age, which meant that the so-called ‘northern species’ were doing really well, and the ‘southern species’ had a more restricted range. Modern global heating is going to become much more severe than the Little Ice Age was, and is likely to magnify the differences so that Britain and Ireland in the 21st century is going to have significant differences in its flora and fauna to the 17th century, no matter what we do.

The distribution trend for the majority of species mentioned in this book was either uncertain or unchanged, compared to 24 increases and 26 decreases. Did this surprise you?

I knew that there would be lots of uncertainty in the data from the time period, but I was a bit surprised that so few species showed a decline in distribution. We know that we are in a biodiversity crisis now, but the declines in abundance we are currently facing are going to take some time to result in declines in distribution at a regional level, which is the rather crude metric I was able to track in the Atlas of Early Modern Wildlife. It’s also true that there have been official and unofficial reintroductions in the modern period, which have restored species like Beaver, Otter and Greylag Goose across much of their early modern range, meaning that comparing early modern and present distribution hides what happened to these species in between.

You mention that there was a bias towards recording exploitable species in the early modern period and a bias towards recording birds now. Did this affect which species you were able to include in this book?

Yes, with the exception of a few species of conservation concern, I included only the best-recorded species in my Atlas of Early Modern Wildlife. That means that there is a bias towards certain groups of species. For example, I was able to map the past distribution of 18 freshwater fishes but only five small songbirds. Don’t ask me about the distribution of the Sparrow or the Great Tit in the early modern period, because my sources don’t offer much data about them!

What was the most difficult aspect of creating this book?

The most complicated part of the Atlas of Early Modern Wildlife has been trying to solve the recorder-effort problem. I needed to be able to tell when species were not recorded because they were absent (like the Wolf, which seems to have been extinct in England and Wales already by this time period), and when animals were not recorded simply because not enough effort had been put into recording them (like those Sparrows and Great Tits which no-one really cared about). My solution was to statistically compare how many records I had for each species from different regions of Britain and Ireland with a figure of how well-recorded each different region was in the early modern period. I also used some habitat suitability modelling to try and establish patterns behind absences, but this has been complicated, speculative work!

Do you have any future plans that you can tell us about?

I think I could take this project further in the future. It should be possible to map the distribution of wild plants 250-500 years ago, or to join up the distribution of Britain and Ireland’s wildlife with the distribution of wildlife in other parts of Europe from the same time period. But I also want to work a bit more on poetry from the early modern period. There are a few very strange poems written c.1580-1650 that protest environmental destruction and are told from the perspective of animals which I think deserve to be much more widely known.

The Atlas of Early Modern Wildlife by Lee Raye is due to be published by Pelagic Publishing in July 2023 and is available for pre-order from nhbs.com.

Author interview: An Identification Guide to Garden Birds of Britain and North-West Europe

An Identification Guide to Garden Birds of Britain and North-West Europe is a photographic guide to 75 species of bird most commonly found in or over the gardens of Britain and North-West Europe. The text combines scientific facts with affectionate descriptions of the birds’ identifying features, including sex and age differences, habits, nest types, eggs and calls. The introduction contains tips on how to identify birds, how to look after garden birds, which species can be seen throughout the year, a glossary and anatomy details. For each species, there are two or three photographs labelled with distinguishing features where appropriate, a calendar showing the time of year when the adult can be seen and star facts that give further proof of the birds’ fascinating features.

Dominic Couzens is an award-winning nature writer with 40 books and hundreds of published articles to his name. His best-known books include An Identification Guide to Garden Insects of Britain and North-West Europe, The Secret Lives of Garden Birds, Britain’s Mammals (WildGuides) and Save Our Species. Carl Bovis is a nature photographer with a particular passion for birds. The advent of digital photography has given him the opportunity to capture the birds he sees and share them with the world.

We were lucky enough to ask both Dominic and Carl a few questions about what inspired them to produce this guide, what the process was like to assemble it and the importance of providing habitats for birds in our gardens.

What inspired you to produce this introductory guide to garden birds?

Dominic: As a regular Twitter follower I quickly became aware of Carl’s work. What stood out for me was his wonderfully giving attitude, really helping “ordinary” people connect with birds and birdwatching with the use of clever and funny bird photos, as well as wondrous ones. He encourages everyone to get involved and to enjoy nature, and he does it in a unique way.

So from my (Dominic’s) point of view, it was a no-brainer to cooperate with Carl on an entry-level guide to garden birds, with his own special take.

This book follows on from a book on garden insects published with another first-time author, Gail Ashton, last year. In both guides we have used light-hearted introductions and mentioned star facts about each species, to helve delve into the subject’s life.

How did you choose which species to include in this guide?

Our subject was garden birds, and since we wanted to cover northern Europe we had a good range to choose from. Most species pick themselves, but the guide will stand or fall on what we include.

This guide is full of many wonderful and illustrative photographs. What was the process like to assemble these? Where there any species that were particularly difficult to attain clear photos of?

Carl: I’m known for taking photos of the common birds, a lot of which many serious bird photographers turn their noses up at! So a book about garden birds was perfect for me, as I have taken many photos of them over the last few years and had many to choose from. I also have a passion for catching birds in flight, the shape and angles of their wings and tail fascinate me. Obviously this is an ID book, so perched birds are essential, but we’ve included lots of flight shots too.

It’s very rewarding for me to have my photos in this guide. A couple of years ago I was talking to a serious birder at Steart Marshes and he said to me; ‘your photos of birds are very engaging, but they’d never be in a mainstream bird book’. I didn’t take offence, I like that many of my photos are different to the norm, but at the same time, I’m happy now to have proved him wrong!

It’s also an honour to collaborate with Dominic on this, as before I even knew him personally, I had bought and enjoyed many of his previous books, and had attended one of his fascinating talks on bird behaviour. He is nature-writing ‘royalty’ as far as I’m concerned.

The shy and rarer garden birds were obviously toughest to get clear photos of, especially ones that don’t visit my own little Somerset garden where many of the photos were taken. So birds like Bullfinch, Treecreeper and Redstart were a challenge. If you get them in your garden, consider yourself lucky!

Included with this interview are a few of my favourite photos from the book.

Given the many pressures facing our garden birds, are there any species in this guide that you think won’t be so common in coming years?

Dominic: We have included a number that are declining, such as Marsh and Willow Tits, Chaffinches and Greenfinches. The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is in serious trouble, and both House Martins and Swifts are on the wane. There are others, too.

But I do think it’s very important to let people just discover and enjoy birds. I hope the book inspires first and foremost.

This guide includes a section on looking after garden birds, giving tips as to how people with gardens can help. How important is it that people make their gardens into good habitats for birds?

Dominic: Gardens are incredibly important for two reasons. They are the best place for people and birds to meet, and for people to get excited about birds and love them.

Secondly, gardens are where everybody can be a conservationist. The overall fortunes of birds and other wildlife often feel as though they are outside our control, but in gardens we can make decisions that directly affect wildlife. If enough people realised how important their backyard decisions were to wildlife, they might be inspired to do more.

Are there any plans to continue this series and, if so, which other species groups that you would like to make an identification guide about?

Dominic: Yes, a book on Trees is already well in production. Any others in the series may require us to get John Beaufoy, our publisher, drunk so that we can persuade him to do some more.

An Identification Guide to Garden Birds of Britain and North-West Europe by Dominic Couzens and Carl Bovis is published by John Beaufoy Publishing in June 2023 and is available from nhbs.com.

Author Interview with Mike Pienkowski: When the Kite Builds

When the Kite Builds…: Why and How We Restored Red Kites Across Britain is an informative and comprehensive examination of the project to reintroduce red kites to England and Scotland. Mike Pienkowski, the chairmen of this project, describes why the decision was taken and how it was implemented, as well as examining the success of the experiment and exploring the outcomes from this success. Chapters cover how nestlings were collected and imported, how the kites were reared, the initial survival after release, education and public awareness, and much more.

Below is our interview with Mike Pienkowski, where we discuss how he became involved in this project, whether population recovery would have been possible without reintroduction, how the increase in red kites has impacted or enhanced the British countryside, and more. When the Kite Builds… was published in February 2023.

Dr Mike Pienkowski will be signing copies of his book at the NHBS stand, number S107, in Swallow Marquee at Global Birdfair on Saturday 15th of July between 2–3pm.

When the Kite Builds… is a comprehensive overview and analysis of the project to restore red kites to Britain. How did you become involved in this project and why did you decide to write this book?

From the mid-1980s, I was Head of Ornithology at the Nature Conservancy Council (then the UK Government conservation agency). NCC was struggling to implement legislation which it had not drafted, and which tended to give the false impression that conservationists were always negative to others. Among a review of all the projects we needed to meet bird conservation needs, I wanted to include something clearly positive and cooperative. There were at the time three globally threatened bird species which occurred in Britain. One was red kite, whose range was now restricted to Europe, and declining across most of it. Red kites had been common across Britain in the Middle Ages, and valued as the recycling agents of the time, clearing bodies from city and countryside, but had later been exterminated from England, Scotland and Ireland, with just a tiny isolated and interbred population surviving in central Wales involving intense protection. Could we restore red kites across Britain? Colleagues in RSPB had been thinking along similar lines, and we formed a joint project team, which I chaired. From 1984, we researched all aspects and began an experimental introduction in 1989. When this proved successful by 1995, we encouraged others to use our methods in other appropriate locations across the country.

I wanted to document the process, the full story of what one reviewer described as “a mixture of science, politics and luck” – especially as there have been few books addressing all aspects of science-based conservation projects. I had started the book in the mid-1990s – but various things intervened. I went back to it a couple of times and finished it during lockdown. It is actually a much better book now than it would have been 25 years ago, both because we can see the real outcomes and I can be more open now than would have been possible then.

Fully grown kites ready for release. Image credit: Dr Mike Pienkowski

Chapter 10 discusses education and public awareness, especially among landowners and gamekeepers. Do you believe that population recovery would have been possible without reintroduction through extensive campaigns to educate the public to reduce persecution and increase suitable habitats or was the existing population too small to be viable?

I think that the two elements worked together. In fact, we planned in the hope that they would. Although we considered that, in much of the country, illegal persecution was much reduced, making releases viable, we knew that this was not the case everywhere and, especially when the young kites dispersed, that we would probably lose a few to this vile activity (which by far the majority of land-owners and game-keepers deplore). We found that the public were horrified by deaths from such causes, particularly of birds imported to correct previous human errors. We are grateful to the public, police and public health authorities for securing several successful prosecutions. These and the campaigns did lead to a reduction in such activity. This has allowed not only red kites but also other species, such as buzzard and raven, to repopulate some of their former ranges.

There have been reports that the illegal killings of birds of prey have been surging across the UK in recent years. Has this affected the red kite populations, and do you think it will impact the success of any other bird of prey species’ reintroductions?

Despite the overall positive trend in decent decades, illegal killings have continued, particularly in certain regions of the country, particularly those with many moorland shooting estates. Whilst most estates are probably law-abiding, it does not take many to devastate a bird of prey population. This is not limited to reintroduction projects but applies strongly to some species, such as the hen harrier, which would be doing so much better without this activity. In the same areas that hen harriers suffer, individuals of other species, including red kite and buzzard, do not survive long. Such higher mortality is why the red kites released in the Black Isle in the north of Scotland increased in population size at a much slower rate than did those in the Chilterns in the same experimental phase of the project. Despite these problems, red kites in the UK now account for well over 10% of the world population. Hen harriers suffer because they are more restricted in habitat than red kites, and this habitat is the centre of most remaining illegal persecution.

Kite nestling being placed in a travel box in Spain. Image credit: Dr Eric Bignal

How has the increase in red kite populations across Britain impacted or enhanced the countryside?

I may be biased, but I see that most people seem to agree that it is an enhancement. The fact that the red kites increased at a rate at the upper limit of our models shows how well they still fit in, after their absence of over 100 years. In general, it does not seem to be at the cost of other species, The nearest in ecology to them, buzzards, have been spreading as well, as I mentioned earlier. In a few urban areas, there have been complaints about kites diving at people. However, it seems that this has occurred only in certain town areas where some people have ignored our advice not to provide food. This leads to a range of problems for the kites and other humans. Overall, people seem to be delighted to experience such beautifully coloured birds of prey, with their amazing aerobatic ability, due to their huge wing area but relatively small, light bodies.

Kite flying free from rearing cage. Image credit: Dr Mike Pienkowski

Chapter 12 discusses the reintroductions and recovery programmes of other species of wildlife. Are there any species that you hope will be reintroduced to the UK soon?

There is not a one-size-fits-all solution; each species needs individual study, assessment and outreach. I think that beavers have largely proved the case for themselves (with a little help from open-minded humans), and a human-led exercise for white storks seems very promising. I think that the cases are strong for pine marten (especially if, like me, one would like to see the range of red squirrels restored) and for lynx (a medium-sized cat very shy of humans, which might help address the problems that the over-population of deer pose to tree saplings). As the book indicates, there are others waiting in line, once we build further confidence with these. Britain’s wildlife populations are hugely depleted due to human actions, and we now have the methods to bring some back, if we have the will.

What do you believe are the key barriers to successful reintroductions and species restorations in the UK? How have these changed since the red kite restoration began?

Kite boxes on a plane. Image credit: Dr Mike Pienkowski

The red kite restoration faced the problem in attitude that many people thought that such things could not be done, and certainly not in densely populated south-eastern England. That is now overcome. However, we must always start from the objective: reintroduction is one of a range of methods that can be deployed. It is best (and least expensive!) not to lose species in the first place. But we are still doing so, whether it be hen harriers or breeding waders (just staying in the world of birds). We need to reverse the serious habitat changes, such as excessive drainage or illegal persecution, as immediate priorities. Even for those species lost to Britain (or elsewhere) and which we wish to reintroduce, before doing so, we need to ensure that there is suitable habitat. The book gives examples of where habitat needed restoration first. One also needs to meet other internationally agreed criteria including avoiding threat to the source population.

Do you have any future projects that you can tell us about?

Most of my work nowadays is as the honorary Chairman of the charity UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum. Britain is internationally important for wildlife, but its Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are even more so. However, these are small places, with small human populations and small economies – so they are hugely underfunded. In fact, all proceeds from the sale of ‘When the Kite Builds…‘ are going in support of this charity’s work. UKOTCF encourages others to undertake conservation work in support of UKOTs, such as the marine protected zones of Pitcairn, Tristan da Cunha, Ascension and St Helena, and the restoration of South Georgia and Ascension. UKOTCF’s in-house projects, always with local partners, include both liaison work across UKOTs and projects with individual territories, such as our current project in Montserrat, ‘Adopt a Home for Wildlife’, empowering local residents and communities to take a lead in managing areas to support conservation.

When the Kite Builds…: Why and How We Restored Red Kites Across Britain was published by UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum in February 2023 and is available from nhbs.com

Author interview with Jennifer Ackerman: What an Owl Knows

In What an Owl Knows, Jennifer Ackerman provides us with a magical and captivating glimpse into the lives of owls. Covering all aspects of their biology, ecology and evolution, the book takes us on a wonderful journey into their lives and those of the people who study them. Through her prose, facts and stories, we discover just why it is that these birds have been enthralling humans for so long, and why they are so intricately interwoven into our culture, art and language.

Jennifer Ackerman is an award-winning writer who wrote for National Geographic for seven years and has written extensively for many publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Scientific American and Smithsonian Magazine. She is well known for her ornithology books including The Bird Way and The Genius of Birds, both of which celebrate the brilliance of birds through the light of new and continuing research into their biology, ecology, behaviour and cognition.

We were thrilled to chat with Jennifer about her most recent book, What An Owl Knows, as well as about owls’ reputation for wisdom, the incredible research that is shedding more light on their lives, and the mysteries that still remain.

Your most recent books, The Bird Way, The Genius of Birds and, to some extent, Birds by the Shore, have all focused on various aspects of bird behaviour and cognition. What inspired you to focus on owls for What An Owl Knows?

I wanted to focus in on a family or group of birds and take a deep dive into their biology and behaviour. I love birds, all birds. But owls? They’re unique in the bird world, night hunters with eerily quiet flight and extraordinary senses. When I started to think about writing a book about owls, they made my head sizzle with questions. What makes an owl an owl? How did owls get to be the way they are, so different from other birds? Why are they active at night? They have a reputation for wisdom, but are they in fact smart? I wanted to explore these questions and find out: What do we really know about owls? Quite a lot, it turns out. We’ve been studying them for a long time. But only lately have there been the advances necessary to solve some of the mysteries that have been around for centuries. Which made it a very good time to write this book.

Everywhere we look in the world, owls are intrinsically tied up in human art, culture and language. What do you think it is about them that captivates us so much?

It’s true, humans have been obsessed with owls for tens of thousands of years. Among the oldest examples of cave art ever discovered is an etching of an owl in Chauvet Cave in France 36,000 years ago. Now, all over the world, owls appear in stories and as symbols, sometimes of wisdom, beneficence and good fortune, and sometimes as emblems of evil and omens of death. I think it’s a combination of things that makes these birds so powerful. We see ourselves in them, with their round heads and big forward-facing eyes. Some species are cute, baby-like. But they’re also so different from us, creatures of the night, fierce in their hunting, so mysterious and uncanny. It’s this whole package of cute and brutal, familiar and strange, that makes these birds so exciting and sometimes, so troubling.

You mention near the beginning of the book that research into owls has, until relatively recently, been fairly sparse. What research techniques or tools do you think have allowed more progress to be made in recent years?

We have new “eyes” in the field—infrared cameras to see what’s going on with owls at night, radio tagging to track their movements and drones to explore remote owl habitats and peep into nests. New advances in satellite telemetry are illuminating the movements of owls over short and long distances. Remote acoustic monitoring—placing tiny audio recorders over large landscapes to listen in on owls—has helped us understand their populations and offered a window into their social lives. Nest cams have revolutionized the study of how owls raise their young, offering a 24-7 intimate look at interactions that would otherwise be impossible to observe. This technology is advancing new discoveries and also confirming observations by banders and other researchers who have been working in the field for decades.

Owls have long been associated with wisdom, although more recently, scientific studies have taught us that they aren’t as intelligent as previously imagined, especially in comparison to other birds such as corvids or parrots. Do you think this is accurate or simply a reflection of our tendency to view intelligence from a human perspective?

The science of understanding the minds of other animals is still in its infancy, and we still tend to view intelligence through our own lens. But there’s a growing awareness that there are different kinds of intelligence, different ways of knowing in the animal world that are hard to conceive of and hard to measure. On the question of owl intelligence, the science has been swinging back and forth. It’s true that owls may not be smart in the same ways that parrots and corvids are smart (and in the same ways we are smart). But they do have large brains for their body size, just as these other bird families do—and also, perhaps, ways of knowing that go beyond ours. People who train raptors used to consider owls not as bright as other birds, especially other raptors. But now that they’re beginning to understand the subtleties and complexity of owl behaviour and knowledge, they’re changing their tune. In their stories and in my conversations with other owl experts, I found plenty of good examples of intriguingly clever behaviour among owls.

What an Owl Knows delves deep into the science of owls and covers their adaptations, communication, courtship and breeding, as well as the lives of the people studying them. Following the incredible amount of research that you undertook, are there any questions or mysteries about owls that remain unanswered for you?

So many mysteries remain. We still have a lot to learn about basic things, like how many owls are out there and the details of how they’re moving around from season to season. Questions about their communication and their inner lives still abound. When one owl hoots or squawks or chitters at another, what is it really saying? How much information is packed into an owl’s vocalizations that we might be missing? When an owl is on a night hunt, what does it actually see and hear? And what is really going on in an owl’s mind?

What was the most fascinating thing you learned while researching this book?

I have to pick just one? Ok. I loved learning that burrowing owls—comical little owls that nest in the burrows of other animals like prairie dogs, woodchucks and armadillos—adorn the outside of their burrows with all sorts of weird and wonderful “treasures”: cornstalks and corncobs, bits of wood, bones, moss, swatches of fabric, bison dung, coyote scat, even pieces of concrete. Why? Why in the world would they expend energy on this sort of apparently frivolous decorating?

Finally, are you able to tell us what you are working on next?

I do have another book in the works, but I’m going to be owly about that and keep it a secret…

What an Owl Knows by Jennifer Ackerman is published by Oneworld Publications in July 2023 and is available from nhbs.com.

The NHBS Guide to UK Corvid Identification

There are eight species of corvid in the UK, five of which belong to the Corvus genus. They are intelligent birds, with many studies finding species demonstrating self-awareness and tool-making abilities. Their brain-to-body mass ratio is only slightly lower than ours and equal to cetaceans and non-human great apes.

Corvids occur worldwide, except for the polar ice caps and the southern tip of South America. Certain species are a common sight in our urban areas, having adapted to the proximity of humans. Some surveys have even found that fitness and reproduction have increased due to human development. Crows and ravens have been shown to have high reproduction rates and a positive association between annual survival and proximity to human development.

The crow family feature heavily in mythology and folklore, often as omens of ill fortune or death, though magpies can also be considered a herald of fortune. This is thought to have derived from their scavenging behaviour, feeding on carrion at battlefields. They were considered by some to be ‘soul guides’, there to carry to dead into the afterlife. Ravens feature in Scandinavian mythology, as the god Odin had two ravens that would tell him secrets they’d heard. This communication also features in Anglo-Saxon history. This is most likely due to the ability of many corvid species to mimic sounds in their environment, including human speech. They do this by using their two ‘syrinxes’, vocal organs located at the base of the bird’s trachea, which is made of ossified cartilage, muscles and vibrating membranes. As corvids have excellent memories, they can be taught a wide range of words and sentences.

All species are listed as green by the Birds of Conservation Concern 4, with the Eurasian Jay being upgraded from its previous amber status.

Carrion crow (Corvus corone)

Distribution: Common and widespread, although less common in northwest Scotland. They are found across many habitats, including woodland, farmland, heathland and urban areas.
Wingspan: 84–100cm
What to look for: An all-black species, they have a shiny, thick black beak that is of medium length, and black legs. Their black plumage has a glossy sheen. They are fairly solitary and are most likely seen alone or in pairs, but they can occasionally form flocks.

Jackdaw (Corvus monedula)

Distribution: Common and widespread, except for parts of the Scottish Highlands.
Wingspan: 64–73cm
What to look for: The jackdaw is a black species with a distinctive silvery patch on the back of its head. It has pale eyes that are quite easy to see. Their beaks are shorter than carrion crows, though both have an extended patch of feathers on the top of their beak.

Rook (Corvus frugilegus)

Distribution: Widely distributed across most of the UK, although less widespread in Scotland and mostly absent from far northwest Scotland. They are mostly seen in open fields but can be found along roadsides and occasionally in parks and villages. They mainly avoid the centre of larger towns and cities.
Wingspan: 81–99cm
What to look for: This species is black, with a distinctive bare, greyish-white face and a peaked head. Rooks also have a thinner, paler beak than other corvids, such as carrion crows. This beak darkens towards the tip. Juveniles do not have a bare face, therefore can resemble other all-black corvids such as crows, but they can be distinguished by their peaked head.

Jay (Garrulus glandarius)

Distribution: Widespread across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, present in parts of Scotland except in the north.
Wingspan: 52–58cm
What to look for: This colourful bird is a light brown to pinkish-grey, with a pale throat and prominent black moustache stripes. Their forehead and crown are pale with dark stripes. The upper surface of their wings is white and black, with a distinctive bright blue patch patterned with black bars. Their tail is white or pinkish underneath but their upper tail feathers are mainly black.

Magpie (Pica pica)

Distribution: Widespread across the UK, except the highlands.
Wingspan: 52–62 cm
What to look for: This species has a distinctive black and white plumage, with a purple-blue shine to the wings and a green shine to the tail. They have a black beak, black legs and black leg feathers.
Did you know? Magpies have long been associated with folklore in many countries, with a wide range of beliefs. Magpies have been thought to signal death, bad luck, good luck, fortune-telling and happiness. They are also the centre of the well-known ‘one for sorrow’ nursery rhyme where the number of magpies signals different events and occurrences. Depending on the version, gatherings of magpies can signal a birth, funeral, wedding, gold, silver, the gender of a child and even the devil.

Raven (Corvus corax)

Distribution: Widespread across Wales, Northern Ireland and the West of Scotland and England. They are found across a number of habitats, including woodland, farmland, upland and marine habitats.
Wingspan: 115–150cm
What to look for: This is the largest member of the crow family, with an all-black plumage, a large bill and long wings. Their necks are thick, with a shaggy appearance. They have a diamond-shaped tail, best seen in flight. They closely resemble the carrion crow, except for their much larger size, but they can resemble raptors such as buzzards in flight.

(Red-billed) Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax)

Distribution: Small, isolated populations along the west coasts of Wales, Cornwall and Ireland, as well as the Isle of Man.
Wingspan: 73–90cm
What to look for: Choughs have a blue-black plumage with a green sheen to their wings and tail. They have a slender, red bill that curves downward. Its legs are red with black claws. Juveniles have an orange bill and either pink or grey legs.
Did you know? In 2002, a pair of choughs raised young in Cornwall for the first time in more than 50 years. They continued to nest successfully for over a decade, raising 46 chicks in total. In 2022, the population reached 200 birds, with 25 pairs successfully raising over 70 young.

Red-billed chough by gailhampshire via Flickr

Hooded crow (Corvus cornix)

Distribution: Present in Northern Ireland, north and west Scotland, and the Isle of Man. In winter, it is present on the eastern side of England.
Wingspan: 93–104cm
What to look for: This species has an ashy-grey plumage, with a black head, throat, tail, wings and thigh feathers. It has a black beak and legs, with dark brown eyes.
Did you know? The hooded crow was thought to be the same species as the carrion crow until 2002 when they were given full species status.

The NHBS Guide to UK Thrush Identification

Thrushes are passerines in the family Turdidae. They are found worldwide. The family was once much larger before biologists determined that the former subfamily Saxicolinae (chats) were Old World flycatchers rather than thrushes. Some thrushes are permanently resident in warm climates, while others migrate to higher latitudes during summer, often over considerable distances. There are four species that regularly breed in UK as well as two winter visitors that also occasionally breed here.

These small to medium-sized ground living birds feed on mainly on insects, other invertebrates and fruit. They generally inhabit wooded areas, creating cup-shaped nests that are sometimes lined with mud. They lay between two to five speckled eggs, with two or more clutches a year.

All the thrushes listed below are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, including their eggs and nest sites, with several included on the UK Red or Amber List. Song thrushes have even been designation as a Priority Species under the UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework.

Blackbird (Turdus merula)

Distribution: This is the most common and widespread thrush, present all year round.
BoCC5 status: Green
Wingspan: 34–38cm
What to look for: Males and females look different, with males being all black, with bright yellow eye-rings and beaks, while females are a redish-brown, with a speckled appearance and duller yellow eye-rings and beaks. The female’s beak can also be dark brown.

Male blackbird by Jacob Spinks via Flickr

Female blackbird by Jacob Spinks via Flickr

Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris)

Distribution: These are winter birds, with only a few remaining to breed in the UK all year round.
BoCC5 status: Red
Wingspan: 39–42cm
What to look for: This is a slight larger bird, with grey heads, necks and rumps, though they have a dark strip across their eye to their orange and black beak. Their backs are dark brown and their tails are black, with a tinged orange throat and a paler, puff coloured breast. They are speckled with dark markings, which are larger on their breast. Their underside is pale.

Mistle Thrush (Turdus viscivorus)

Distribution: Widespread, across the whole of the British Isles throughout the year. They are absent in parts of the northern and western isles of Scotland.
BoCC5 status: Red
Wingspan: 42–48cm
What to look for: This is the largest of the thrushes, with a dark brown back and paler underside and throat that is speckled with dark brown. It has a pale eye-ring, cheeks and lores. They stand quite upright and have orange legs and an orange and dark brown beak.

Redwing (Turdus iliacus)

Distribution: This is a winter visitor, arriving from late September onwards and leaving again in the summer. They’re found across the UK, except for parts of North Scotland.
BoCC5 status: Amber
Wingspan: 33–35cm
What to look for: This species is the smallest thrush that regularly visits the UK, similar in appearance to the song thrush. Their distinctive feature, however, is the bright orange-red patch on their sides under each wing, as well as the pale stripe over their eye.

Ring Ouzel (Turdus torquatus)

Distribution: Summer visitors are found in the uplands of Scotland and northern England, as well as parts of north west Wales and Dartmoor. During spring and autumn, when they migrate, they may be spotted along the east and south coasts of the UK.
BoCC5 status: Red
Wingspan: 38–42cm
What to look for: Males are black, with a pale panel on their wings and a bright white band across their breast, resembling a bib. Females are similar but their colouration is much less striking, looking like a ‘washed out’ version of the male. Both have an orange and black beak and black legs. Their wings and underside feathers have pale outlines, and some can have white patches on their heads.

Male ring ouzel by Nick Goodrum via Flickr

Female ring ouzel by Stefan Berndtsson via Flickr

Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos)

Distribution: Found across the UK, through missing from parts of Northern and Southern Scotland.
BoCC5 status: Amber
Wingspan: 33–36cm
What to look for: This, other than the blackbird, is probably the most well known member of the thrush family. They are a small bird, browner than the mistle thrush, with smaller speckles. Their sides and cheeks are yellowish, with a paler underside, eye-ring, undertail and legs. Their beaks are yellow and black.
Did you know? The male song thrush copies other birds’ songs, creating a repertoire that it sings on repeat, often to reinforce territories and attract mates.

Author Interview with Mark Carwardine: RSPB How to Photograph Garden Birds

RSPB How to Photograph Garden Birds is an inspirational and practical guide to photographing birds in your own garden. Packed full of tips and tricks, the book covers equipment, composition, light and weather, as well as providing guidance on feeding birds to make your garden as attractive as possible to feathered visitors.

The second half of the book contains a range of different projects, each with details on the equipment required and the techniques you will need to use to obtain the desired shot. From using reflecting pools and catching birds in flight, there is plenty here to help you hone your skills and start capturing professional quality images.

Mark Carwardine is a zoologist and an award-winning writer, a TV and radio presenter and a bestselling author of more than 50 books. Well known for his skills as a wildlife photographer, he was selected as one of ‘The World’s 40 Most Influential Nature Photographers’ in the US’s Outdoor Photography magazine and is currently presenting and producing the BBC Wildlife Photography Masterclass on YouTube. He also runs wildlife photography holidays and workshops worldwide.

In this Q&A, we chatted with Mark about the book, about his life and journey as a photographer, and discuss some tips on making photography affordable.

You have been described as one of ‘The World’s 40 Most Influential Nature Photographers’, have chaired the judging panel of the prestigious Wildlife Competition of the Year for seven years, and are presenter and producer of the BBC’s Wildlife Photography Masterclass. With all this experience, variety and skill under your belt, what made you turn your attention to garden birds as the subject of your latest book?

It was a lockdown thing. I’ve been feeding birds in the garden for as long as I can remember (as we should all be doing – there is a lot of evidence that feeding garden birds year-round really does give them a better chance of survival). I loved watching them, and they gave me an inordinate amount of pleasure, but it was only during lockdown that I really started to photograph them. And then I got completely hooked. Garden birds make fantastic photographic subjects. Many of them are strikingly beautiful; they are readily accessible (you can even capture frame-filling images from your kitchen window); they tend to be tamer and more relaxed around people than most ‘wild’ birds out in the countryside; and they are impressively adaptable (you can move the feeders around, change the perches or add a new prop and they will often return within a few minutes). The other great advantage, of course, is there is no need for flights or hotel rooms: you barely have to leave the house.

What came first to you as a youngster, a love of nature or a love of photography? Or did they develop simultaneously?

Definitely a love of nature. I’ve been obsessed with wildlife since before I could walk and talk. The photography came in my teens. My father was a keen photographer and taught me how to print black-and-white prints in his darkroom in the loft etc, so he was the initial inspiration. I still remember saving for my first ‘proper’ camera in my mid-teens – it took me two years, working every Saturday and all school holidays in a camera shop. I’ve been very lucky to be able to make photography a big part of my work – to illustrate books, articles and lectures etc.

You mention in the book that you started out by shooting film. Do you prefer the flexibility of digital photography or are there things you miss about using older techniques and equipment?

I don’t miss anything about shooting film at all! How anyone managed to take great wildlife pictures with a 36-exposure roll of 25 or 64 ASA film – let alone with a separate light meter and a manual-focus lens – I will never know. I’m very grateful to have learnt photography using film, because you had to understand how everything worked and you had to work slowly and carefully, but my photography has certainly improved since the advent of digital. In fact, I was Chairing the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition during the transition from film to digital and watched the standard of wildlife photography grow exponentially.

I imagine a large part of being a good photographer is slowing down and really paying attention, not only to your chosen subject, but to the surroundings, weather, light and other variables. As someone who is evidently extremely productive and busy in your professional life, do you find this aspect of photography enjoyable? Or is it a necessary chore?

It’s the only time I slow down! The funny thing is that I am naturally impatient – I can’t bear wasting time. I hate sitting in traffic, waiting for a late train, being trapped in a meeting that is dragging on unnecessarily. But I can happily sit quietly for hours – no, days – waiting for an animal to appear or do something interesting. That’s a pleasure and in no way a chore. I can sit perfectly still in a hide, without moving, let alone talking, with no problem at all. Every sense is alert, your mind clears and, of course, there is always something to look at. The other thing I love is the sense of anticipation. You could wait all day and nothing happens; or, without warning, you could be surprised by one of your best wildlife sightings ever. And, of course, you do need to be patient in wildlife photography, waiting for the best light, the best pose, or whatever.

Do you think that art and photography have an important role to play in inspiring people to value or get involved with wildlife and the natural world?

I have mixed feelings about this. I do think photography can play a critically important role in inspiring people and promotion conservation. The old adage ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ is often true – meaning that complex ideas can be conveyed in a single image. There are many examples of one picture spurring a massive campaign and, ultimately, inspiring significant change. On the wall behind me in my office is a signed photograph by Commander Frank Borman, taken during Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon. It’s called ‘Earthrise’ and shows our tiny blue planet hanging in space, as viewed across the surface of the moon. It’s credited with kick-starting the environmental movement in the late 1960s. There are some inspiring examples in nature photography, too. Ansel Adams famously used his photographs to help create Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. And look at the work of the International League of Conservation Photographers. But I have mixed feelings because many photographers these days claim to be ‘helping conservation’ simply by taking pictures of wildlife and wild places. It doesn’t work like that – you have to do something as well.

In the current financial climate, the cost of equipment might put many people off taking up photography as a hobby. I liked that you covered the use of smartphones in your book, as this is something that almost everybody has access to. What would be your top recommendation for an inexpensive accessory that could be used with a Smartphone for photographing garden birds?

Yes, it’s true. Some of the best long lenses these days cost as much as a small family car! There’s a whole chapter in the book about photographing garden birds with a smartphone. One of the challenges with smartphone photography is shooting frame-filling pictures – getting close enough to your subjects. I’d recommend buying a really inexpensive little gadget called a shutter release, or shutter remote. This communicates with your phone via Bluetooth. Once you’ve paired it, you simply tap the button on the remote to take a picture. Then all you do is place the phone near your carefully positioned photographic perch – or wherever you think the birds might land. Sit in the kitchen with a coffee or a beer, using binoculars to see the back of the phone clearly enough to judge when a bird comes into view, and fire away to your heart’s content. It works amazingly well.

What’s in store for you next? Do you have plans for further books?

Actually, I’m working on another photographic book. For the past 30 years, I’ve spent a month or two most winters in Baja California, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, running whale watching tours, doing research and filming. It’s arguably the best place in the world for whale watching. So I am compiling a book of my favourite photographs from those 30 years, called ‘Baja California: Realm of the Great Whales’. I just have a few hundred thousand more images to go through, and I’ll be ready to make the final selection!

RSPB How to Photograph Garden Birds by Mark Carwardine was published in January 2023. It is published by Bloomsbury Publishing and available from nhbs.com.

Tag: Ornithology