The BTO at 80 (BTO)

A huge amount has happened in the eighty-year lifetime of the BTO. Whilst the life expectancy of a man has increased from 53 to 78 and that for a woman from 60 to 81, much of our bird life has fared rather less well.

In five pages we focus on the range of the BTO’s achievements over eight decades – from its role in the discovery of DDT’s impact on raptor populations, via the reactions to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and on to more recent concerns about farmland, woodland and migrant birds.

Throughout this period our members, whether amateurs or professionals, have helped to shed light on the issues facing Britain’s birds and the habitats we share with them.

• BTO 1933-53: From Great Crested Grebes to milk-bottle tops
• BTO 1953-73: The last few Wrynecks and the first national bird atlas
• BTO 1973-93: Support for SSSIs and two atlases
• BTO 1993-13: Garden BirdWatch to satellite tracking



Andy Clements, Director of the BTO

• BTO 2013-33: Space for birds on these crowded islands?

It started with a letter

Eighty years ago, on 1 July 1933, a group of birdwatchers wrote to the editor of The Times, announcing the formation of The British Trust for Ornithology and asking for public support for “a scheme of research over an initial period of five years”. The project received the whole-hearted support of the editor and the rest, to coin a phrase, is history.

Read more

http://www.bto.org/