Detailed information about the true historical nature of Britain’s avifauna is hard to glean, tending to be hidden in journals and unpublished reports. This book – a comprehensive avian follow-up to the author’s exceptional The History of British Mammals (2001) – aims to change this situation.

D W Yalden is best known as a mammalogist, but he has published extensively on the post-glacial history of birds, and is well placed to begin this discourse.

The major historical part of the book starts where all birds start, with Archaeopteryx, and then covers the amazing finds in the Eocene London clay, such as primitive mousebirds and turacos. A recognisable British avifauna consolidated during the Pleistocene period (encompassing the last 1.8 million years), but notably included an extinct albatross species. Modern species are present en masse about 400,000 years ago, with a typical winter bird assemblage that also included Eagle Owl, Mandarin Duck and Red-crested Pochard. Even more recent deposits produce Cory’s Shearwater, alongside mammals such as Hippopotamus and Spotted Hyena.

The real substance of the book covers the last 15,000 years, a period during which Britain thawed, losing its Arctic Foxes and Woolly Mammoths, and became separated from the Continent. Even then, Chaffinch was the commonest bird in British woodlands, living alongside Hazel Grouse. Great Auk is frequently found in deposits of this age. The Bronze Age (about 4,000 years ago) saw Dalmatian Pelicans populating the Cambridge fens alongside White-tailed Eagles.

Agriculture was fully developed by the time the Romans set foot in England, and both Red and Black Grouse were present throughout southern England. Native Britons appear to have eaten almost anything that flew (including Great Northern Diver!), enabling the avifauna of this time to be instantly recognisable to the modern birder from midden and cave deposits.

In Mediaeval times, the first written records of British birds were appearing, recording that Common Crane and Capercaillie were still widespread. The human population began expanding exponentially, having a massive and largely detrimental effect on bird diversity.

The final chapter of the book is a neat summary of where we are now and what might happen in the near future, in terms of extinctions, reintroductions and colonisations. Changes in farming techniques have caused a range retraction in seed-eating birds, while land drainage has reduced the number of Yellow Wagtails. Red Grouse, arguably our most distinct endemic form, has declined due to the overgrazing of heather, while the planting of alien conifers for paper pulp has benefited Common Crossbill and Siskin.

Human overcrowding, with its attendant land developments and recreational use of the countryside, has seen mass encroachment on wild birds’ territories, particularly by dogs and their owners, but has also meant that interest in conservation has increased. Potential colonisers from the Continent are discussed, as well as invasive aliens and potential recolonisers from captive sources (Eagle Owl comes to mind), and the likely losses of montane and northern species due to climate change.

The book closes with a lengthy annotated historical list of British birds, though with no distinction between those with an archaeological history and those merely mentioned in the text. This means there are several intriguing but unclarified entries in the list, such as Azure-winged Magpie, Griffon Vulture and Booted Eagle – are these former British species?

Despite this minor niggle, this volume looks set to become the best modern reference for anyone wishing to know about the rich history of the British avifauna. It pulls together the most important publications on Holocene birds – such as John Stewart on size change through time and Tommy Tyrberg on speciation in glacial refugia – and gives a comprehensive overview of the current state of our knowledge from archaeological sites. It provides an informed perspective for anyone who has or wants an opinion on the spate of recently mooted reintroductions. While laden with technical data and historical detail, it is both readable and engaging.

If you want to know why we have the avifauna we have today, this book should be your first port of call.

David Callahan