Michael Bird is an award-winning investigative journalist and writer based in Bucharest, Romania and London, UK. He specialises in long-form features about eastern Europe, and writes short fiction.
Fiction
Michael Bird’s published short stories include:
🐅 ‘A Glass House for Esther’ (Fly on the Wall press, 2024): a Victorian eco-horror in an upcoming anthology, Modern Gothic, available for pre-order
🐦⬛ ‘…it takes a hundred magpies’ (Folklore Review 2024): a communist gothic folk tale on collectivisation and necromancy
🦭 “Tidewrack” (Split Lip Mag, 2023): a memoir on grief, William Faulkner and the pros and cons of saving seal pups
🍲 “Crack” (Litro USA, 2023): don’t ask about the secrets of a thousand-year-old stew
🍕 “The Chicago Game” (Final Girl Bulletin Board, 2023): how to crowdsource homicide
🔔 “Allow Notifications” (Route 57, 2023): a tragedy hidden in phone alerts
☽𖤐☾ “The New Client” (Panel Magazine, 2023): gen z cooks up spells in Bucharest
🍩 “I Named Every Donut in My Shop after Scorsese Movies. No One Bought The Departed” (Daily Drunk Mag, 2023): a story of redemption, deep-fried and dusted with sugar
🦠 “A Drive Through the Park” (Porter House Review, 2022): how the virus brought us together, and tore us apart
🍟 “Fry Girl 4Eva” (Daily Drunk Mag, 2022, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize): how my body morphed into a spurned 80s McDonald’s mascot
Further stories include “Stay Silent, Eyes of the Sun” (Lune Journal, 2020), The Bamboo Clock Face (Here Comes Everyone, 2020), Mark’s Journey (Bandit Fiction, 2020), The Calling (‘Trouble’ anthology by Grist, University of Huddersfield Press, 2019), These Walls of Me (Winner of Second Prize, on www.theshortstory.net, 2018), England Doesn’t Want You (Bristol Short Story Prize 2013 anthology), The Plait (Bristol Short Story Prize 2015 anthology), and Fallout (in Storgy’s Exit Earth Anthology, 2017).
Journalism
In 2022 and 2023, Michael co-wrote investigations into food shortages caused by the war in Ukraine, corruption in organic farming in a UNESCO heritage site and the abuse of agricultural employees. In 2021, he was part of a team investigating factory workers at the frontline of the Covid-19 pandemic. Recently, he also wrote for Vice on Bucharest and for Scena9 on Ukraine.
His work has appeared in the Independent on Sunday, Mediapart, Politico, Tagesspiegel, Ukraine Today, EU Observer, Business Insider, IRPI Media and Nieman Reports. He has been reporting live for Deutsche Welle TV, contributed as a guest to BBC Radio 5 ‘Up All Night’ for several years, and has been an expert interview for Al Jazeera on Romania and for Dutch TV doc ‘Zembla’ on Donald Trump’s relationship with Kazakh oligarchs.
Major projects he has worked on include as co-writer for The Fix-Up: ‘How Sky News broadcasts false content about east Europe’, and Football Leaks, with European Investigative Collaborations.
Between 2013 and 2019 he was reporter and editor for The Black Sea – which showcases investigative reporting in southeast Europe, and was nominated for the European Press Prize. He is winner of the 2015 Award for Best Initiatives of European Online Investigative Journalism, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (Florence, Italy) for work covering HIV booms among drug users in Ukraine, Moldova and Romania.
Photos on the site are from Romania, Moldova, Italy, Ukraine, Croatia, Slovenia, Kosovo and Georgia, and are taken by Michael Bird, unless otherwise mentioned.
Twitter: @MichaelBirdUK
Michael Bird Writer & Journalist 
Hi, I saw your documentary on the Romanian stray dogs on Action Aid for Animals. I’m writing an article about the situation in Romania. Could you kindly tell me when exactly that video was made? I’ll be quoting from it and mentioning the video and your name – I hope that’s ok with you. Thanks
Thanks for your interest – the video was made between 2011 and 2012 with some re-shoots in late 2012. The decision of the Constitutional Court at the end of the film was in March 2012 (I think, but thereabouts) – since then the Constitutional Court changed its mind (in September 2013) and has allowed the killing of the dogs.
all the best
Michael Bird
hi Michael, I am thinking of going to Romania to do some secret filming and to get the footage out there in the UK, I have been helping with funding and bringing dogs over but I want to know more and to capture the real truths, ive seen footage and seen pictures but I cannot let this go, x
Sure, you can get in touch via email anytime on michaeljamesbird@gmail.com
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Hello from Korea, Michael!
I’m Korean football fan and one of Football community in Korea!
and You are well known as the real journo and your blacksea is, too.
So We really hope to have a section with you!
But only if you are fine with that!
Please hope to have your response.. Happy day, Sir!
Hello – it is best to get in touch with Stefan Candea at rcij@riseup.net about EIC network and Football Leaks, all the best
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What a great site! I am a Romanian-born Canadian who has been following this whole Brexit spectacle and cannot help but wonder how Britain can live with itself. In light of Britain’s past riddled with horror stories of abuse and illegal trespassing on other nations through colonisation, I cannot help but wonder if Britain realises how hypocritical it is as a nation and how it should be the last country on the face of the Earth to speak of migrants being a burden to them. What had Britain done for centuries to other nations imposing their own views on others, taking over their lands, going on hunting sprees to murder aboriginals…to mention just a few…the history book is riddled with horror stories. As for contemporary history, the consequences of the suffering Britain caused to the nations it colonised in such a criminal way, continue to haunt and impact the lives of so many on this planet.