Dr Bethan Roberts is the William Noble Postdoctoral Research Associate in the English Department, University of Liverpool, where she works on birds in eighteenth-century and Romantic poetry, science and ecology.

Her first book was Charlotte Smith and the Sonnet: Form, Place and Tradition in the Late Eighteenth Century (Liverpool University Press, 2019). Her second book, Nightingale for the Reaktion Press animal series, is out next year.

Bethan joins us in celebrating International Dawn Chorus Day 2020 by introducing and celebrating a few of her favourite poems about birds.

Want to know more about the dawn chorus or explore other artistic interpretations of this fascinating natural phenomenon?

Discover Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg's Machine Auguries, a sound installation where natural dawn chorus is infiltrated by artificial bird song and asks us to question the impact of our 24-hour urban lifestyle on birds.

Read a blog by Chris Tynan from RSPB Liverpool as he shares his knowledge to help you identify birds and bird calls in around Merseyside.

Listen to a sonic reimagining of the dawn chorus by acclaimed ecological field recordist and musician Geoff Sample and Daniel Thorne, saxophonist, composer and founder of the Immix Ensemble.