Witherby Memorial Lectures are named in memory of Harry Forbes Witherby, a notable British ornithologist and author who was a founding member of BTO.
- Learn more about Witherby’s contribution to BTO and how you can follow in his footsteps by becoming a Witherby Custodian.
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 . 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 |
2023 | No lecture | |
2024 | Dr Norman Ratcliffe | Ashmole’s halo and Hutchinson’s hypervolume |