The society was formed in 1914 and has been a registered charity since 1971.

Its aims are to record and publish data on all the faunal groups that occur in the region.

In the early years, there was a pronounced bias towards insects, spiders, butterflies, moths, beetles and other invertebrates. Over the years, the emphasis has switched towards the avifauna of the region as this was the most popular aspect of natural history observation. During the past quarter of a century, the society concentrated on the Birds of Lancashire, with the Cheshire Ornithological Society reporting on Cheshire birds.

We also publish occasional general reports on other faunal groups and general papers specialist interest. We have recently endeavoured to re-introduce some regular articles on other faunal groups which have a broad interest base within the birders of the region. We have produced introductory articles on the Dragonflies, Butterflies and Mammals of the region in our last three Lancashire bird reports.

In November 2001, the society published "The Atlas of Breeding Birds of Lancashire and North Merseyside". This 420pp book has been widely lauded as a definitive work of its genre. It was compiled and written by Lancashire birders following on from four years of survey work (1997 - 2000). It is the only atlas to have ever been published the year after the survey work has been completed and it provided a complete and up-to-date breeding distribution of all Lancashire's birds.

Past copies of the societies reports and the recently published "Atlas" are available from the Secretary and you will find a full listing on the site.