Witherby Memorial Lectures

Browse a historical list of Witherby Memorial Lectures, academic and expert lectures delivered at our Annual Conference since 1968. 

Witherby Memorial Lectures are named in memory of Harry Forbes Witherby, a notable British ornithologist and author who was a founding member of BTO. 

1968
Sir Landsborough Thomson
The sub-species concept
1969
Dr D Lack
The number of bird species on islands
1970
H N Southern
Tawny Owls
1971
Dr E M Nicholson
Geograms
1972
Sir Peter Scott
Species extinction in birds
1973
Mrs P Hall
Speciation and specialisation
1974
D Nethersole-Thompson
Greenshanks
1975
Dr J C Coulson
Ringing as an ecological tool
1976
Professor G M Dunnet
The ages of birds – adolescence and senility
1977
Dr D W Snow
The relationships between the African and European avifaunas
1978
Ill-health prevented the lecture being given.
1979
S Cramp
Ornithology and bird conservation
1980
Dr D A Ratcliffe
The Peregrine
1981
Professor W G Hale
The biology of the Redshank
1982
Dr J Kear
Some thoughts on eggs
1983
Dr C M Perrins
A study of the Great Tit
1984
Professor P P G Bateson
Imprinting in young birds
1985
Dr I Newton
Individual performance in Sparrowhawks
1986
Dr C H Fry
The Bee-eaters
1987
Dr F Cooke
Natural selection in Snow Geese
1988
Professor P R Evans
Migration strategies of shorebirds
1989
Professor J R Krebs
Food hoarding in tits
1990
No lecture took place due to severe adverse weather conditions.
1991
Dr J D Goss-Custard
The importance of scale in the study of bird populations
1992
Dr G R Potts
Is there a future for farmland birds?
1993
Professor Dr P Berthold
Some new developments in bird migration research
1994
Professor J H Lawton
All change? Numbers and range in the field and in the mind
1995
Dr A Watson
Thinking, practice and people in bird population ecology
1996
Dr M Owen
Wildlife and water: partnerships for effective action
1997
Dr M P Harris
Individuality in a densely colonial seabird: the Common Guillemot
1998
Dr J P Croxall
Albatrosses, Fisheries and Futures
1999
Professor D T Parkin
Birding and DNA
2000
Dr D G C Harper
The public and private lives of Robins
2001
Professor Dr F Bairlein
The study of bird migration: where to go?
2002
Professor N B Davies
Cuckoo versus host
2003
Professor D M Bryant
Swallows – life in an uncertain world
2004
Professor P Monaghan
Bad beginnings and untimely ends: Life history trade-offs in birds
2005
Professor W J Sutherland
Science and Conservation
2006
Professor T Piersma
What is it like to be a Knot? Towards a cognitive ecology of shorebirds
2007
Dr M Marquiss
Case studies with predatory birds
2008
Professor P Grant
Evolution of Darwin’s finches
2009
Dr F Spina
Birds and rings across the Mediterranean: the role of ringing for science and for conservation in Italy
2010
Professor Tim Birkhead
Sperm and Eggs: Promiscuity in birds
2011
Professor Rhys Green
Birth, death and bird conservation
2012
Professor Sarah Wanless
An Exaltation of Auks
2013
Professor Graham Martin
Through birds' eyes
2014 Professor Kevin Gaston Birds in an urbanising world
2015 Professor Jenny Gill Migration in space and time
2016 Professor Ben Sheldon Coping with a variable world: plasticity and social learning in Great Tit
2017 Professor Stuart Bearhop The ups and downs of an extreme migrant
2018 Professor Jane Reid Ringing, Birding, Migration Ecology & Evolution
2019 Professor Bob Furness What have the ringers ever done for us? How amateurs make British ornithology great
2020 Professor Caren Cooper Flock together: Innovations migrating across citizen science
2021 Professor Claire Spottiswoode Coevolution as an engine of biodiversity: insights from African birds
2022 Professor Peter Marra Studying Birds in the Context of the Full Annual Cycle

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