The Perfect 10 Birds of Greater Manchester

The main aim of the “Perfect Ten” project is to inspire the people of Greater Manchester to fall in love with the birds and environment on our doorsteps.

“The Perfect Ten” bird species can connect people to nature, instil civic pride, encourage investment in the environment, potentially be central to marketing Greater Manchester as an Ecotourism destination and inspire a local arts and culture renaissance.

At the launch event for the Greater Manchester Natural Capital Plan, January 2019 at the Museum of Science of Industry in Manchester, the question was asked “How can we make the environment sexy?”

“The Perfect Ten” is the Greater Manchester Birding City Region (GMBCR) Project’s answer. The concept is a bird to represent each of the ten boroughs of Greater Manchester. Botswana has the Lilac-breasted Roller, New Zealand has the Kiwi, Queensland in Australia has the Brolga and Maine has the Black-capped Chickadee, a similar bird to our very own Willow Tit, as its’ state bird.

However, Greater Manchester doesn’t currently have any birds to represent it, despite having amazingly spectacular and varied birdlife for a city region.

So Shaun and James - who launched the GMBCR Project at Manchester Central in March 2018 as a pledge to the inaugural Mayor’s Green Summit - cycled for thousands of miles around Greater Manchester looking at the birds, the ecology, the landscape, the culture and the heritage of each borough, and researched Bird Reports, forums and social media to select the initial suggestions for “The Perfect Ten”.

Now, the GMBCR Project, in association with LWT – the Lancashire Wildlife Trust and MFON – the Manchester Festival of Nature, are starting a public consultation to give the people of Greater Manchester a say on “The Perfect Ten”.