Discovering the BIRDS of England’s PLACE-NAMES
Welcome to the Birds and Place Project, a site devoted to recording, exploring and celebrating the birds of English place-names (and, in time, those of other countries in Britain and Ireland too). Discover the great variety of birds featured in the names of England’s towns and villages and landscapes. Learn about the origins of these names which transport us back over 1000 years to the early Middle Ages. Our place-names reveal how birds have been inspiring our senses of place and belonging for centuries, even millennia.
Begin unlocking the secrets of our ancient natural heritage by clicking on the links below or go to ‘Search’ at the top of the page. Visit the other pages to find out more about this project, the book that inspired it, and the history of place-names.
To come on the Birds and Place Project ...
This website is still being populated, and will continually and always need updating because there are a huge number of names and records to process. Please do keep checking back to see what else is new. If you don’t see what you’re looking for on this website right now, it may feature in future plans for the project, so take a look at the list below (and feel free to reach out using the Contacts page):
Search functionality for each place-name by county (as well as by bird)
Inclusion of field names and other minor names for as many species as possible
Individual pages for each place-name with a map/location and historical record
Expanding to the whole of Britain and Ireland to take in Scots and Irish Gaelic, Welsh and Cornish languages/place-names (very long-term goal!)
Events
Join Michael at one of his book talks this year to spread the love for birds and place. Click on the event to book tickets (links will be updated/activated as tickets become available).
~ 2025 ~
Red Lion Books, Colchester, Essex
SATURDAY 7TH JUNE
Cuckmere Wildlife Festival, Cuckmere Haven, E. Sussex
SATURDAY 28TH JUNE
Global Bird Fair, Rutland
SATURDAY 12TH JULY
Maldon Books, Maldon, Essex (with Jeremy Mynott
THURSDAY 19th JULY
Toppings Bookshop, Ely
FRIDAY 19TH SEPTEMBER
The Langdyke Trust, Cambridgeshire
THURSDAY 2ND OCTOBER
Frampton Marshes RSPB, Lincolnshire
FRIDAY 3RD OCTOBER
Kemps Bookshop, Malton, Yorkshire (with Amy-Jane Beer)
WEDNESDAY 8TH OCTOBER
Cranbrook Literature Festival, Cranbrook, Kent (with Alex Preston)
SATURDAY 11TH OCTOBER
The Bookery, Crediton, Devon (with Guy Shrubsole)
THURSDAY 13TH NOVEMBER
EWT Fingringhoe Wick, Essex
SUNDAY 23RD NOVEMBER
Institute of Name Studies Seminar (online)
TUESDAY 2ND DECEMBER
NWT Cley NR, Cley, Norfolk
FRIDAY 5TH DECEMBER
~ 2026 ~
LWT Whisby, Thorpe on the Hill, Lincolnshire
SATURDAY 6TH FEBRUARY
Shaftesbury Literary Festival: Reading the Land
SATURDAY 21ST MARCH
Marylebone Birdwatching Society
FRIDAY 17TH APRIL
Deepings Literary Festival, Mark Deeping, Lincolnshire
FRIDAY 1st MAY
Chipping Camden Festival, Gloucestershire
THURSDAY 7TH MAY
Essex Wildlife Trust, Gosfield
THURSDAY 14TH MAY
The Birds and Place Project is proud to be associated with and endorsed by Curlew Action, a charity that researches and fights for the survival of breeding curlews in Britain and Ireland. This is one of our most charismatic species connected familiarly with landscape, as suggested by the number of songs, stories and poems written over the centuries about this beautiful relationship between bird and place.
Listen to Curlew Action’s patron, David Gray, talking about curlews. The full video can be viewed here. David’s song about curlews, from the album Simmerdim: Curlew Sounds, conceived and produced by Orcadian musician Merlyn Driver.