Jonathan Elphick

Great Birds: 200 Star Species of Britain, undertaken with the photographer David Tipling, was published in 2006.

Inspired by, among others, the writings of Bruce Campbell one of the foremost ornithologists of the day, Elphick's journey through ornithological literature began with the paperback Bird Watching for Beginners and Campbell's Birds in Colour. Migrating from the Bird Recognition paperback guides (by the ornithologist James Fisher) he came under the influence of the Nature Conservancy warden at Newborough Warren National Nature Reserve, on the Isle of Anglesey, Peter Hope-Jones. In 1969 Elphick gained a BSc. degree in Zoology and secured a job as a Natural history editor, working as an in-house editor for various publishers including Dorling Kindersley, eventually going freelance and specialising in Birds.

Birdlife in North Wales in the early 1950s was relatively unaffected by agricultural developments and other changes, that proved to be major factors in the decline of many British birds.

Born in 1945, in Prestatyn, in what was then the historic county of Flintshire (Welsh: Sir y Fflint) until re-organisation made it part of Clwyd and then Denbighshire; Jonathan Elphick was raised in North Wales, surrounded by a mountainous and beautiful mosaic of habitats: including traditional mixed farmland, woods, rivers, lakes, hills and coastlines. He spent the first four years of his life in Rhyl, then moved to Dyserth, where he attended Ysgol Hiraddug, Dyserth, moving on to St Asaph's Grammar School and ultimately University College, Swansea (1964–1968), one of the four colleges comprising the University of Wales.