Its mascot, and later logo, the red grouse, was chosen because at the time it was then considered an endemic British species; though subsequently long considered a subspecies of the willow grouse, further study resulted in it being returned to separate species status in 2024.[4].

In 1916, British Birds magazine absorbed The Zoologist, due to the latter's shortage of subscribers.

Wartime paper restrictions meant that those issues were all pretty thin so it was possible to bind 19 into one volume.

In 2007 a DVD-ROM disk containing the first 100 years' worth of content (volumes 1–100) was released in conjunction with BirdGuides Ltd.

In 2010, the magazine launched a blog, Facebook group and a Twitter account.