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A CENTURY ago, the chief debates within the British ornithological establishment centred around classification, nomenclature and the identification of subspecies. Studies were mainly based on the skins of shot birds rather than on field observation, so knowledge of their ecology was limited. Now, there are descriptive accounts and statistics on the populations and behaviour of all of Britain’s resident and most passage species, with targeted surveys carried out on those believed vulnerable. The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) has played a leading role in these developments and celebrates the 90th anniversary of its foundation this year.
The not-for-profit trust was formed to advance knowledge of British birds and their habitats, as well as identify issues influencing their wellbeing. Harry Witherby, an early vice-chairman, had proposed ‘organised inquiries’ into the status, distribution and breeding range of certain birds in the first issue of his influential journal, British Birds, in 1907, but the BTO’s prime inspirational mover was Max Nicholson (1904–2003), who argued for ‘the potential of cooperative birdwatching to inform conservation’.
The first recorded mapping census of birds was conducted by the Alexander brothers, C. J. and H. G., in Kent in 1909, but it was Nicholson’s annual heronries census, initiated in 1928, but overseen by the BTO after its formation in 1933, that gave the charity impetus. Grey herons, although currently thriving, had long undergone persecution for their skins, eggs and because of their predation of fish stocks and, by the early 20th century,
