The book

Birds in Cheshire and Wirral cover.
Yellowhammer image © David Quinn.

Lavishly illustrated with 300 pictures by local photographers and artists, this colour Atlas provides full accounts of 186 species, with briefer treatments for a further 31. More than 500 maps show the birds’ distribution in the two seasons as well as the difference between seasons and the spectacular gains and losses in breeding status over the last twenty years. For the first time at county level, this Atlas also includes figures for the breeding populations of 65 of the most numerous species, 35 of which also feature abundance maps. In a further innovation for a project of this nature, observers recorded details of the birds’ habitats, greatly increasing its overall conservation value.

‘Wherever one dips into this publication, there are gems to be found ... It gives unprecedented understanding of the region’s birds.’
Ian Newton, Chairman RSPB

'This is an incredible achievement for a local group and they deserve support as well as our admiration. It could have used all the effort to produce the sort of volume we are used to seeing from county ornithological societies but they have, instead, produced a book that is pleasing to look at, easy to follow and clear where others can be confusing and, moreover, a treasure-house of information.'
Fatbirder.com

There were some exceptionally good regional publications eligible this year, and it was again apparent just how much the quality of local and regional atlases and avifaunas has advanced in the past decade. We felt that Birds in Cheshire and Wirral stood out this year, for the quality and presentation of data on this area’s bird populations in both summer and winter, and in particular for the analysis of changes since the preceding work in 1984.
Britishbirds.co.uk book of the year

Cheshire and Wirral Ornithological Society was honoured by the BTO and the Marsh Christian Trust with the inaugural Marsh Award for Local Ornithology for their publication Birds in Cheshire and Wirral: a breeding and wintering atlas.
The BTO

290 x 210mm, 704pp, 300 colour illustrations and line drawings, 500 maps

Published November 2008

The publication is £45 and can be purchased from  Liverpool University Press