London Natural History Society The place for wildlife in London

London Natural History Society - The place for wildlife in London
Through our many field meetings and indoor meetings we provide opportunities for our members to develop and extend their their knowledge of London's diverse bird life. These include plenty of events that are suitable for beginners.

For many years we have been collecting and publishing a significant body of information, records and scientific papers about London's birds in our annual London Bird Report.

Bird Recorders

A full list of the LNHS bird recorders for different geographic areas can be found on the Who We Are page and contact details can be found on the Contact Us page.

London Bird Report Contacts

Chair of Editorial Board, London Bird Report: Vacant

Papers Editor, London Bird Report: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Data Manager: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The LNHS recording area is a 20 mile radius of St Paul’s Cathedral. This area encompasses a wide range of wildlife habitats and some outstanding nature reserves that result in a surprisingly high number of species of birds being recorded each year. Around 350 species of birds have been recorded since 1900 and in a typical year over 200 species are recorded. You can read a series of highlights from January 2016 to January 2023 by Howard Vaughan, which covers the Essex metropolitan area of London and RSPB Rainham Marshes, arguably the most bird species rich site in the LNHS area. Rainham Marshes is relatively wild and open to London's East. In contrast, the accounts by John Cadera focuses on sites in the London Borough of Southwark, a densely populated borough that spreads south and east from London Bridge and Tower Bridge. The Southwark accounts provides an insight into what Londoners can expect to see in their parks, wherever the local council has made some effort at rewilding. The accounts by Adam Salmon relate to the relatively narrow confines of the WWT London Wetland Centre. It is managed intensively for wildlife and its combination of easy access by public transport, rich biodiversity and visitor facilities makes it one of the best urban nature reserves in the world. It is very popular with wildlife photographers who are able to get close to wild birds from the hides.

Thanks to Howard Vaughan, John Cadera and Adam Salmon, the principal contributors, and to Tara Wikramanayaka, Anna Watkins and Cecilia Derrick for copy editing.

 

For the latest sightings you can also:

 

If you would like to contribute a monthly or quarterly highlight, to an area not already covered, please get in touch with the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 highlights panel