The rugged contryside of Wales has long been a destination for successive generations of naturalists, ornithologists, zoologists and, latterly, birdwatchers. Since the pioneering days of Willoughby and Ray, Pennant and Edward Llwyd, a growing number of intrepid travellers have recorded the wildlife and other natural riches of the mountains and coastlines of Wales. Despite these beginnings and the more recent 20th century vogue for birdwatching, no volume on the birds of Wales has been produced until now to serve the increasing need for scientifically valid information for conservation purposes. In the years that have passed since the first naturalista visited Wales, changes of unimaginable scale have taken place in the Welsh countinside which have had equally dramatic impacts on the native bird communities. A succession of bird species have either been eliminated deliberately by the hand of man - mainly birds of prev - or have been dispossessed by changes in land use, the spread of industrialization, urbanization and pollution, trends which continue today to the increasing detriment of even some of our most familiar countryside birds. Much fine habitat to colonize Wales and add to the magic of its countryside. This volume sets out for the first time the historical and current status of all the bird species found in Wales together with their present distribution.