What's in the issue

On this week’s cover: the blue crane, immaculate star of its family and eagerly admired in collections. Now top foreign birdman Darren Sefton tells us how to find these magnificent creatures in the wild, near Cape Town. The region around this famous city is fantastic for both cranes and many other species of immense interest to aviculturists. And a visit can be organised simply, safely and inexpensively. Almost as exotic is - or rather was - the famous market for birds located in Paris. A wonder of the bird world, it’s known to us now only through eyewitness accounts – and we have one from a very English Englishman who lived there in the 1920s. Nearer home we focus on canaries, native softbills, judging and the 2025 version of the Scottish National.