Liverpool Liver Bird

About the Liver Bird

Liverpool is a vibrant port city on the River Mersey, symbolized by the legendary Liver Bird perched atop the Royal Liver Building. These mythical cormorant-like creatures have watched over the city since 1911, one gazing out to sea to protect sailors and the other looking inland to guard the city. The Liver Birds have become Liverpool's most iconic emblem, representing a city renowned for its maritime heritage, music, and football.

Liverpool's bird emblem traces back to the medieval borough seal, which showed a bird holding a sprig of foliage — most likely an eagle, the emblem of St John the Evangelist, alluding to King John, who granted the town's founding charter in 1207. Later readings turned the eagle into a cormorant carrying a sprig of seaweed, and that version was formalised when the College of Arms granted the borough its coat of arms in 1797. Two copper birds sculpted by Carl Bernard Bartels were placed on the Royal Liver Building, completed in 1911. The story that the city would fall if they flew away is folklore rather than history. The bird now appears on civic insignia and on Liverpool Football Club's crest.