The poetry of birds

Birds are the most obvious wild things we have around us.

They are much watched and much loved. A remarkable number of poets have noticed birds and British bird poetry is as old as British poetry.

Some of the best known, and most loved, poems in English are bird poems.

Here poet Simon Armitage and amateur ornithologist Tim Dee gather the best of the past and the most promising of the present, as well as some overlooked gems.

Poems are organised according to ornithological classification, and there are detailed ornithological notes which illuminate the poems and provide fascinating information on the birds.

Altogether this is a truly original anthology.