RED DATA BIRDS IN BRITAIN: ACTION FOR RARE, THREATENED AND IMPORTANT SPECIES. Edited by L.A. Batten, C.J. Bibby, P. Clement, G.D. Elliott and R.F. Porter. Illustrated by Ian Willis.

The various Red Data Books prepared by the IUCN and ICBP have set the standards for recognizing birds close to or at risk of extinction worldwide. This book, by focusing on vulnerable species living in or visiting Britain, sets out to define the British situation and to clearly establish both the importance of British populations and our own responsibilities for contributing to bird conservation.
Compiled by an editorial team drawn from the Nature Conservancy Council and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, it identifies 117 species that demand our care and attention. Obviously it includes species that breed in or visit Britain in small numbers and whose population are threatened by natural or man-made circumstances. However, it also deals with birds that are common or numerous but which, due to their localized distribution worldwide, have the greater part of their European populations in British sites.
Each of the species accounts provides up-to-date information on current populations, basic ecology, threats to the species and the legal protection and conservation measures now in force. General chapters deal with the state of Britain's various habitats, legal matters and conservation action for the future. This book should mean that no one, whether ornithologist, land manager or bureaucrat can plead ignorance when future land-use changes or management decisions threaten an endangered, vulnerable or important bird species.

Colin Bibby is Director of Science and Policy at the International Council for Bird Preservation where he is interested in the role of birds as indicators for global biodiversity conservation. While Head of Conservation Science at the Royal Society for the Protection of birds, he was a co-author of Red Data Birds in Britain. In both capacities, he has been struck by the small number of birds of conservation concern which have been counted adequately. He has counted birds in Britain and Europe, as a professional, as an amateur participant, and as an organizer of surveys for the British Trust for Ornithology. He was motivated to start this book by the belief that bird-watchers would contribute more to conservation if they put more effort into counting birds, but lack of guidance on methods was a handicap.