Will Smith, Author at British Ornithologists' Union

About the author

Will Smith

Will Smith currently works as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Nottingham. He studies evolution at the wild-feral-domestic interface, with a particular focus on the pigeon Columba livia. As part of this, he manages a mark-recapture study of Rock Doves in the Outer Hebrides. See here for published works.

The Secret Lives of Outer Hebridean Rock Doves

By Will Smith|2026-07-18T20:45:42+01:0020 Jul 2026|anthropogenic habitats, bird movements, monitoring|

What can we learn from studying the wild counterparts of domesticated pigeons?

Doves of a feather flock together

By Will Smith|2023-04-12T10:20:50+01:0013 Apr 2023|bird assemblages, citizen science, colouration, connectivity, distribution, early-career researcher, ECR, feathers, fieldwork, Genetics, hybridization, hybrids, IBIS, island birds, plumage, population structure, range expansion|

Can we distinguish Rock Doves from feral pigeons using plumage?

A wild pigeon chase!

By Will Smith|2022-07-08T11:53:13+01:0011 Jul 2022|distribution, domesticated, early career, early-career researcher, ECR, Genetics, genomics, population dynamics, population structure|

The Rock Dove’s genomic status in the British Isles.

Walking on the wild side

By Will Smith|2021-12-27T17:15:46+00:0027 Dec 2021|Conservation, domesticated, early-career researcher, ECR, evolution, Galliformes, gene flow, hybridization, pigeon, populations, selection|

What are the challenges of studying and conserving the wild forms of our domestic animals?