Welcome to the British Ornithologists’ Club

What we do

We are passionate about educating the public in the UK and world-wide in all things ornithological including avian systematics, taxonomy and species distributions. We provide a platform for the publication of open-access scientific information, via the Bulletin, as well as hosting discussions on key ornithological issues.

Publications

In 2020 we published, in the Checklist series, The Birds of Cuba. It is obvious, we think, that such a book should be available in Spanish, the language of Cuba, for the benefit (and pleasure) of all of its population, as well as many people in the wider Caribbean and South American region. For this reason, it’s a pleasure to make this available in an accessible PDF format. The essential parts of the text was translated by two of the original authors, Andy Mitchell and Arturo Kirkconnell and proofed by Nathaly O’Farrill.  The translated version is available here.

Bulletin

The BOC produces a Bulletin four times a year in an open access online format available for viewing and downloading at BioOne. The list of the table of contents of each issue is available at the Bulletin Index page where you will also find the contents from earlier issue. These are available to view on the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) website.

The BOC Bulletin is available for viewing or download. You can view the table of contents, abstracts and references, full text or downloadable PDFs of individual papers as well as the complete issue at the BioOne Complete website.

Upcoming Meetings 2025

Thursday 23 October—A Quietening of the Woods | The Decline of Woodland Birds

Dr Richard K Broughton is a research ecologist specialising in forests, farmlands and particularly birds. He completed a PhD on Marsh Tit ecology, is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Bird Study and author of a Poyser monograph (2025), The Marsh Tit and the Willow Tit.

Location:Linnean Society of London, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BF, UK

Time:18.00- 20.00

This is our annual partnership event with the Linnean Society

Dr Richard Broughton will explore the story of Marsh Tits and Willow Tits as sentinels of woodland habitats and the issues they are facing.

CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR TICKET.

This is an in-person event ONLY. There is no live stream. 

(The talk will be followed by a drinks reception in the Linnean Society’s historic library, where a paid bar will be available.)

Europe’s forest ecosystems are under enormous pressure from habitat loss, mismanagement, invasive species and climate change, leading to rapid biodiversity loss. This is especially acute in Britain, where severe declines of woodland birds are of major conservation concern.

Several woodland birds have already become extinct in Britain, and others are quickly heading that way, quietening our familiar soundscapes. Two of the fastest declining woodland birds are the Marsh Tit and Willow Tit, which are small, closely-related residents from the chickadee family. Formerly common and widespread, British Marsh Tits have declined by 80% and Willow Tits by 96% since the 1960s. The exact causes of their decline seem to differ between the two species, and they are still not fully understood. Dr Richard Broughton will explore the story of Marsh Tits and Willow Tits as sentinels of woodland habitats and the issues they are facing.

Dr Richard K Broughton is a research ecologist specialising in forests, farmlands and particularly birds. He completed a PhD on Marsh Tit ecology, is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Bird Study and author of a Poyser monograph (2025), The Marsh Tit and the Willow Tit.

Monday 10 November—John Henry Gurney: A Passion for Birds

Location: Upper floor, The Barley Mow, 104 Horseferry Rd, London SW1P 2EE.

Time: The talk, by Clive Slater, will start at 6.30pm ( doors open at 6.00), aiming to finish at about 7.45pm. If you wish to eat afterwards, please place your order in the pub downstairs prior to the talk.

For more information please visit the upcoming meetings page.

CASE Studentship

The British Ornithologists’ Club is pleased to announce its role as a CASE* project partner and financial supporter for a new PhD studentship at the University of Oxford. The project will be supervised by Dr Steve Portugal (a BOC trustee) and will be carried out at the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, at The University of Oxford. The project is titled ‘Eyes in the Sky: Predicting Bird Collision Risks Through Visual Field Analysis and Flock Behaviour’ and aims to better understand why certain bird species are more prone to collisions with human-made structures, while others tend to avoid them. Sam Thompson will begin his PhD this October, based at the Department of Biological Sciences and St Edmund Hall College. Sam completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Exeter, before undertaking his MSc at Royal Holloway College, The University of London. For the last three years, Sam has been working as an outdoor biology tutor for the Field Studies Council and is a keen birder.

The project aims to fuse traditional field studies with laboratory-based experiments, using the extensive bird flight facilities at Oxford University’s John Krebs Research Station, Wytham. In collaboration with Professors Graham Taylor and Graham Martin, we aim to gain a much better understanding of the sensory ecology underlying bird collisions with human-made objects. Sam is due to complete his PhD in the summer of 2029, and the BOC will be providing regular updates through its newsletter, as the project progresses.

* Council for Advancement and Support of Education : https://www.case.org

See also Sam Thompson’s blog.

Blog

We publish blog posts which tell the stories of papers published in the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club and look at pertinent issues in ornithology. We have also published a series of blogs which document the biographies of the founders of The BOC as well as publishing interviews with authors on a wide range of ornithological titles from family monographs, cutting edge field identification guides to lighter books on simply enjoying birds and nature.

Read the latest blog posts here: