Cage & Aviary Birds Magazine No.5800 All-British beauties... Back Issue

BILL ODDIE MAY not be everyone’s cup of tea,
but few would deny that he has done his bit to
raise the profile of birds in this country. And he
it was who popularised the phrase that, like it
or loathe it, has stuck to certain of our native
species: “Little Brown Job”, or LBJ for short.
For the non-bird person, this unfortunate tag serves as a
catch-all for those songbirds that look pretty much the
same to them, being small, dull in colour and nondescript
in looks. It covers a lot of the warblers and pipits, plus
dunnock, probably wren and maybe even thrushes.
That’s to the non-bird person, as I said. For those who
bother to use their eyes and ears, by contrast, these
species are full of beauty, character and interest. If you’ve
ever examined a freshly moulted meadow pipit at close
quarters, with its
quiet olive tones
and delicate
streaking, you’ll
know what I
mean. Likewise,
if you’ve admired
the blue-grey
versus brown
combination of a dunnock, you’ll know that this bird has
lots to offer. In fact, brightly plumaged species can look
gaudy, almost coarse, by comparison with these birds.
I’m an unashamed fan of the LBJ, and that’s why I’m
delighted to include in this week’s issue an article by British
softbill fancier Nigel Higgins that features not one, but two
of them: the dunnock and the meadow pipit (see page 14).
I appreciated Nigel’s account of his success with
stonechats a few weeks ago and can’t wait to read how he
gets on with these two cracking species. Enjoy.
 This Saturday, the Budgerigar Society is to host a
presentation on the vexed issue of long-flighted and
long-tailed birds, and the kind and degree of threat that
they pose to the exhibition budgerigar.
On page 16, Fred Wright offers his
views in advance of the presentation –
and I look forward to hearing the BS
pronouncement in due course.