There has been an interest in the birds of Wicken Fen since long before The National Trust started acquiring the land in the late 19^th century. However, because most of the information was coming from collectors, the interest was centred on rare or scarce species. For instance Montagu’s Harrier, Spotted Crake and Marsh Warbler were reported as breeding in the 1840’s & ‘50’s but little is known of the common species that occurred here.

The acquisition of land on the Sedge Fen at the turn of the century was mainly due to its importance as an entomological site and those involved had little interest in the bird life. Indeed in the 1920’s publication "The Natural History of Wicken Fen" only one percent was devoted to the birds. However, there were those that did describe the birds slightly further afield, Ennion’s "Adventurer’s Fen" is a classic example.

Coot

This situation continued largely unchanged until the late 1960’s when the Cambridge Bird Club were providing records which resulted in an excellent booklet produced by Kirtland and Easy. It described 172 species of which 78 nested on the site. Also at this time the Wicken Fen Group was established. The group concentrated most of it’s efforts on ringing and, particularly in the early years, on gathering data towards the BTO’s Acrocephalus warbler enquiry. The group was one of the first, if not the first, to carry out standardised ringing programmes which continue to the present day. The emphasis of the group has always been on research with papers on such diverse subjects as ‘aphids and Sedge Warblers’, ‘post juvenile moult in Tree Sparrows’, ‘population changes in Redpoll’ and ‘bird ticks’ regularly appearing in their annual report.

In the late 1980’s Bennett and Thorne produced a popular booklet which summarised the information from those early sources and brought it up to date. The first edition commented on 202 species whilst a later edition referred to 212 (although a number of these were of ‘unknown origins’.

By the mid ‘90’s the Fens bird life was generating increasing interest. Several new surveys were being undertaken and continue to date. In addition to the work that has been undertaken by the group since the late ‘60’s, there is a BTO Constant Effort Site survey carried out each year; there are monthly counts of wetland birds as a part of the WeBS national surveys; a number of breeding bird survey transects are undertaken on four different parts of the reserve. All of these are reported annually in the Wicken Fen Bird Report.

Cuckoo

All of this increased interest is reflected in the 1997 publication "Wicken Fen – the making of a wetland nature reserve" where, in the natural history section of the book, over 35% is devoted to birds.