The West Midland Bird Club is the UK's largest regional

ornithological Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

society. It has been serving

birdwatcher Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device like binoculars or a telescope, by ...

s and ornithologists in the four

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

counties of

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

and (since its separation from the aforesaid counties in 1974) the Metropolitan

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

, with lectures, field trips, research, a bulletin and an annual report, since 1929. It is a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...

in England and Wales, number 213311. There are branches in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it had ...

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...

Solihull Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe i ...

and Tamworth. It manages the Belvide Reservoir nature reserve in Staffordshire, the Harborne Reserve in Birmingham, and the Ladywalk Reserve in North Warwickshire, as well as running an access-permit scheme for

Blithfield Reservoir Blithfield Reservoir is a large raw water reservoir in Staffordshire, England, owned by South Staffordshire Water. Some 800 acres (324 hectares) of reservoir was formed on land sold by Baron Bagot to the South Staffordshire Water Works (SSWW) i ...

and Gailey Reservoir in Staffordshire. The Club sponsors bird feeding stations at

Cannock Chase Cannock Chase (), often referred to locally as The Chase, is a mixed area of countryside in the county of Staffordshire, England. The area has been designated as the Cannock Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is managed by Forestry E ...

(Staffordshire) and

Draycote Water Draycote Water is a reservoir and country park near the village of Dunchurch, south of Rugby in Warwickshire, England, owned and operated by Severn Trent Water. It draws its water from the River Leam, and supplies drinking water to Rugby and ...

(Warwickshire).

Bill Oddie William Edgar Oddie (born 7 July 1941) is an English writer, comedian, songwriter, musician, artist, birder, conservationist, television presenter and actor. He was a member of comedy trio The Goodies. A birder since his childhood in Quinton, ...

has been the Club's president since 1999.

History

The Club was founded as the Birmingham Bird Club, by W. E. Groves and friends on 1 November 1929. The name changed to Birmingham and District Bird Club in 1945, to The Birmingham and West Midland Bird Club in 1947, and the current name was adopted in 1959. It co-founded and still helps to manage the

Bardsey Bird and Field Observatory Bardsey Bird and Field Observatory is a bird observatory on Bardsey Island, off the Welsh coast. It was founded in 1953 by a group of ornithologists from the West Midland Bird Club (who were represented on the observatory's management committ ...

and was instrumental in securing Brandon Marsh as a nature reserve. A successful ''West Midland Bird Distribution Survey'', published privately in 1951, led to the club publishing the world's first bird atlas, the ''Atlas of breeding birds of the West Midlands'', in 1970. Until 2010, the Club operated an information centre at

Kingsbury Water Park Kingsbury Water Park is a country park in north Warwickshire, England, not far from Birmingham and lying on the River Tame, West Midlands, River Tame. It is owned and managed by Warwickshire County Council. It has fifteen lakes situated in over ...

(Warwickshire).

President

has been the Club's president since 1999. His first published article on birds appeared in the Club's 1962 Annual Report. He is first credited in the 1956 report, in which reports of his bird observations are tagged with his initials "WEO". He discussed his membership of the Club in one of his first forays in the world of television natural history, as the subject of a Nature Watch ''Special: Bill Oddie - Bird Watcher'', in which he was interviewed by

Julian Pettifer Julian Pettifer OBE (born 21 July 1935) is an English television journalist. He was president of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and is vice president of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and the RSPB. He was voted BAFTA 'Repor ...

, at

Bartley Reservoir Bartley Reservoir is a reservoir for drinking water in Birmingham, England, operated by Severn Trent Water.Environment Agency public register of Large Raised Reservoirs, as at 2 November 2020, via It covers . The reservoir is about long, over ...

and the

Christopher Cadbury Wetland Reserve The Christopher Cadbury Wetland Reserve is a nature reserve of the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust. It is situated near Upton Warren, between Bromsgrove and Droitwich Spa in Worcestershire, England. The reserve is designated a Site of Special Sci ...

Notable members

Past and present * Horace Alexander * Alan Dean *

Rob Hume Robert 'Rob' Hume is an English ornithologist, author and journalist specialising in avian and natural history subjects. From Spring 1989 (vol. 12 no. 5), until Summer 2009 (vol. 22 no. 6), he was editor of the RSPB's award-winning ''Birds'' ma ...

* Cyril Hurcomb *

Tony Norris Cuthbert Antony Norris (9 January 1917 in Cradley, Worcestershire – 25 February 2005 in Worcester) was an English ornithologist. He was a member of the RSPB's council in the 1950s and 1960s, chairing its finance and general purposes committee ...

* Mike Rogers * Eric Simms * William Brunsdon Yapp

Publications

* A regular ''Bulletin'' * An ''Annual Report'' * * * *

References

External links

* {{Authority control Conservation in England Ornithological organisations in the United Kingdom Charities based in Staffordshire Charities based in Warwickshire Charities based in the West Midlands (county) Charities based in Worcestershire Organizations established in 1929 Clubs and societies in the West Midlands (county)