British Ornithologists' Union
Encyclopedia
The British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) aims to encourage the study of bird
s ("ornithology
") in Britain
, Europe
and elsewhere, in order to understand their biology
and to aid their conservation
.
The BOU was founded in 1858 by Professor Alfred Newton
, Henry Baker Tristram
and other scientists. Its quarterly journal, Ibis
, has been published since 1859.
The British Ornithologists' Union Records Committee (BOURC) is a committee of the BOU established to maintain the British List, the official list of birds recorded in Great Britain.
Members of the British Ornithologists' Union
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s ("ornithology
Ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
") in Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and elsewhere, in order to understand their biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
and to aid their conservation
Conservation biology
Conservation biology is the scientific study of the nature and status of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction...
.
The BOU was founded in 1858 by Professor Alfred Newton
Alfred Newton
Alfred Newton FRS was an English zoologist and ornithologist.Newton was Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge University from 1866 to 1907...
, Henry Baker Tristram
Henry Baker Tristram
The Reverend Henry Baker Tristram FRS was an English clergyman, Biblical scholar, traveller and ornithologist.Tristram was born at Eglingham vicarage, near Alnwick, Northumberland, and studied at Durham School and Lincoln College, Oxford. In 1846 he was ordained a priest, but he suffered from...
and other scientists. Its quarterly journal, Ibis
Ibis (journal)
Ibis, subtitled the International Journal of Avian Science, is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the British Ornithologists' Union. Topics covered include ecology, conservation, behaviour, palaeontology, and taxonomy of birds. The editor-in-chief is Paul F. Donald. The journal is published by...
, has been published since 1859.
The British Ornithologists' Union Records Committee (BOURC) is a committee of the BOU established to maintain the British List, the official list of birds recorded in Great Britain.
List of presidents
- 1858-1867 : Henry Maurice Drummond-HayHenry Maurice Drummond-HayColonel Henry Maurice Drummond-Hay was a Scottish ornithologist.He was the son of Vice-Admiral Sir Adam Drummond, K.C.B., of Megginch Castle, Perthshire...
(1814–1896) - 1867-1896 : Lord Lilford (1833–1896)
- 1896-1913 : Frederick DuCane GodmanFrederick DuCane GodmanFrederick DuCane Godman D.C.L., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S., F.R.G.S., F.E.S., F.Z.S., M.R.I., F.R.H.S., M.B.O.U. was an English lepidopterist, entomologist and ornithologist....
(1834–1919) - 1913-1918 : Robert George Wardlaw RamsayRobert George Wardlaw RamsayColonel Robert George Wardlaw Ramsay FLS, FZS was an army officer and naturalist. His father was Robert Balfour Wardlaw Ramsay and his mother Louisa was the third daughter of George, eighth Marquess of Tweeddale. He studied at Cheam and Harrow and joined the Hampshire Regiment in January 1871 and...
(1852–1921) - 1918-1921 : William Eagle ClarkeWilliam Eagle ClarkeDr William Eagle Clarke I.S.O LL.D. was a British ornithologist.Clarke was born in Leeds where his father William Clarke was a solicitor and educated at the Grammar School and at Yorkshire College, Leeds where he studied under Professor L C Miall. He was originally a civil engineer and surveyor,...
(1853–1938) - 1921-1922 : Henry John ElwesHenry John ElwesHenry John Elwes, FRS was a British botanist, entomologist, author, lepidopterist, naturalist, collector and traveller who became renowned for collecting specimens of lilies during trips to the Himalayas and Korea. He was the first person to receive the Victoria Medal of the Royal Horticultural...
(1846–1922) - 1923-1928 : Lord Walter RothschildWalter Rothschild, 2nd Baron RothschildLionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild FRS , a scion of the Rothschild family, was a British banker, politician, and zoologist.-Biography:...
(1868–1937) - 1928-1933 : William Lutley SclaterWilliam Lutley SclaterWilliam Lutley Sclater was a British zoologist and museum director. He was the son of Philip Lutley Sclater, and was named after his paternal grandfather, also William Lutley Sclater....
(1863–1944) - 1933-1938 : Harry Witherby (1873–1943)
- 1938-1943 : Sir Norman Boyd KinnearNorman Boyd KinnearSir Norman Boyd Kinnear was a Scottish zoologist and ornithologist.Kinnear was the son of the wealthy Edinburgh architect Charles George Hood Kinnear and came from the same banking family as Sir William Jardine.While studying at Trinity College, Glenalmond, he worked as a voluntary assistant at...
(1882–1957) - 1943-1948 : Percy Roycroft Lowe (1870–1948)
- 1948-1955 : Sir Arthur Landsborough ThomsonArthur Landsborough ThomsonSir Arthur Landsborough Thomson was a Scottish ornithologist.He was president of the British Ornithologists' Union from 1948 to 1955.-Bibliography:*A New Dictionary of Birds , 1964...
(1890–1977) - 1955-1960 : William Homan ThorpeWilliam Homan ThorpeWilliam Homan Thorpe FRS was Professor of Animal Ethology at the University of Cambridge, and a significant British zoologist, ethologist and ornithologist....
(1902–1986) - 1960-1965 : Reginald Ernest MoreauReginald Ernest MoreauReginald Ernest Moreau, , was an English ornithologist.Moreau was among the pioneering ornithologists who focused on life history studies of birds. In 1944 he suggested in a paper in the Ibis that birds laid larger clutches of eggs in the higher latitudes than in the tropics. This was based on his...
(1897–1970) - 1965-1970 : V. C. Wynne-Edwards (1906–1997)
- 1970-1975 : Guy MountfortGuy MountfortGuy Mountfort OBE was an English advertising executive, amateur ornithologist and conservationist.-Biography:...
(1905–2003) - 1975-1979 : Sir Hugh ElliottHugh ElliottSir Hugh Francis Ivo Elliott, 3rd Baronet was an eminent British ornithologist and administrator of Tristan da Cunha . He attended University College, Oxford, was editor of the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club and was president of the British Ornithologists' Union from 1975 to 1979...
(1913–1989) - 1979-1983 : Stanley CrampStanley CrampStanley Cramp was a British civil servant and ornithologist best known as the first Chief Editor of the encyclopaedic nine-volume handbook The Birds of the Western Palearctic ....
(1913–1987) - 1983-1987 : James F. Monk
- 1987-1990 : David SnowDavid SnowDavid William Snow was a celebrated English ornithologist born in Windermere, Westmorland.-Career and personal life:He won a scholarship to Eton and started there in 1938 just before his 14th birthday...
- 1990-1994 : Janet KearJanet KearJanet Kear , OBE, was an English ornithologist.Kear was born in London, and was educated at Walthamstow Hall, Sevenoaks, Caspar Junior College, Wyoming, King's College London and then Girton College, Cambridge where she obtained her Ph.D...
(1933–2004) - 1994-1999 : John Croxall
- 1999-2003 : Ian NewtonIan NewtonProfessor Ian Newton FRS, OBE is an English ornithologist.-Career:Newton was born and raised in north Derbyshire and was educated at Chesterfield Grammar School. He graduated from Bristol University. He received his D.Phil. and D.Sc. degrees from the University of Oxford and has studied a wide...
- 2003-2007 : Christopher Perrins
- 2003-current : Alistair Dawson (Centre for Ecology & Hydrology)
Notable members
- David Armitage BannermanDavid Armitage BannermanDavid Armitage Bannerman OBE, MA, SD , Hon. LL.D. , FRSE, FZS was a British ornithologist.-Biography:After graduating from Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1909, Bannerman travelled extensively in Africa, the West Indies, South America and the Atlantic Islands.Rejected on health grounds by the...
- Gilbert Dempster FisherGilbert Dempster FisherGilbert Dempster Fisher was a Scottish broadcaster, writer and naturalist who achieved prominence on BBC Scottish Radio as a naturalist under the persona of ‘the Hut Man’.- Life :...
- Thomas Campbell EytonThomas Campbell EytonThomas Campbell Eyton JP, DL was an English naturalist whose fields were cattle, fishes and birds. He was a friend and correspondent of Charles Darwin though he opposed his theories....
- John Henry GurneyJohn Henry GurneyJohn Henry Gurney was an English banker, amateur ornithologist, and Liberal Party politician.-Life:Gurney was the only son of Joseph John Gurney of Earlham Hall, Norwich, Norfolk. At the age of ten he was sent to a private tutor at Leytonstone near the Epping Forest, where he met Henry Doubleday,...
- Christopher HelmChristopher HelmChristopher Alexander Roger Helm was a Scottish book publisher, notably of ornithology related titles, including the Helm Identification Guides....
- Henry Eliot Howard
- Edgar Leopold LayardEdgar Leopold LayardEdgar Leopold Layard CMG, FZS, MBOU was a British naturalist mainly interested in ornithology. Born in Florence, Italy, to a family of Huguenot descent, he was the sixth son of Henry Peter John Layard of the Ceylon Civil Service with his wife Marianne,...
- George Edward LodgeGeorge Edward LodgeGeorge Edward Lodge FZS, was a British illustrator of birds and an authority on falconry.-Early life:...
- Hubert LynesHubert LynesRear Admiral Hubert Lynes CB, CMG was a British admiral whose First World War service was notable for his direction of the Zeebrugge and Ostend raids designed to neutralise the German-held port of Bruges, which was used as a raiding base against the British coastline by German Navy surface and...
- Edward NewtonEdward NewtonSir Edward Newton KCMG was a British colonial administrator and ornithologist.He was born at Elveden Hall, Suffolk the sixth and youngest son of William Newton, MP. He was the brother of ornithologist Alfred Newton....
- Osbert SalvinOsbert SalvinOsbert Salvin FRS was an English naturalist, best known for co-authoring Biologia Centrali-Americana with Frederick DuCane Godman. This was a 52 volume encyclopedia on the natural history of Central America....
- Philip SclaterPhilip SclaterPhilip Lutley Sclater was an English lawyer and zoologist. In zoology, he was an expert ornithologist, and identified the main zoogeographic regions of the world...
- Robert Fisher TomesRobert Fisher TomesRobert Fisher Tomes was an English farmer and zoologist.Tomes was born in Weston-on-Avon and farmed at Welford, Gloucestershire. He was a specialist in bats, describing a number of new species...
- Edward Adrian WilsonEdward Adrian WilsonEdward Adrian Wilson was a notable English polar explorer, physician, naturalist, painter and ornithologist.-Early life:...
See also
- British Ornithologists' Union checklistsBritish Ornithologists' Union checklistsThe British Ornithologists' Union checklists are a series of books published by the British Ornithologists' Union documenting the status of bird in various regions of the world. Each volume contains a systematic list of bird species recorded in the area...
- British Ornithologists' ClubBritish Ornithologists' ClubThe British Ornithologists' Club was founded in October 1892 to promote discussion between ornithologists and to produce a journal, their Bulletin, which has been published continuously since that year....
Members of the British Ornithologists' Union