#BOU2026 – Keynote abstracts
Birds and people: challenges and opportunities of coexistence
31 March – 2 April 2026
University of Nottingham, UK & Zoom & Bluesky
Alfred Newton Lecture
The natural history of a human-bird mutualism
Claire Spottiswoode
FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Co-Director of the Max Planck–UCT Centre for Behaviour and Coevolution
Cooperation between humans and wild animals is vanishingly rare. Yet Greater Honeyguides (Indicator indicator) are African birds whose lives have been interwoven with our own, to mutual benefit, for probably as long as we’ve been human. This is because they seek out humans and lead us to an exceptional source of energy for both us and them: honeyguides know where bees’ nests are located and eat beeswax, whereas we humans have unique abilities to use smoke and tools to subdue the bees and open their nest, exposing wax for the honeyguides and honey for ourselves. During a cooperative honey-hunt, honeyguides signal to humans using a distinctive guiding call, and in return people signal to honeyguides using specialised honey-hunting calls that vary culturally across Africa. Over the last decade, we have studied this mosaic of entwined species and cultures in collaboration with honey-hunting communities in Mozambique, Zambia and elsewhere in Africa. In this talk, I will share some of our findings together on how the honeyguide-human partnership functions, how it may have shaped and continue to shape the ecosystems we evolved in, and what it might be able to teach us about communication and the coevolution of cultures across species.
Claire Spottiswoode is a South African evolutionary ecologist, studying birds in Africa. She has been hooked on natural history since childhood, and is especially fascinated by species interactions. Her two main areas of research, together with her team, are coevolution between brood-parasitic birds and their hosts, and mutualism between honeyguides and the human honey-hunters with whom they cooperate to gain access to bees’ nests. Both projects rely on close cooperation with communities in Zambia and Mozambique. Claire works at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where she is also Co-Director of the Max Planck–University of Cape Town Centre for Behaviour and Coevolution. She is also Honorary Professor of African Evolutionary Ecology at the University of Cambridge, UK.
Keynotes
Is the British love of birds what has made citizen science so great and so problematic?
Caren Cooper
North Carolina State University, USA
The field of participatory sciences spans a range of approaches including institution-led citizen science and forms of grassroots community science. Across this spectrum, participatory sciences in the US are racially segregated, mirroring patterns of segregation of neighborhoods, schools, and social and environmental movements. Collectively, citizen science projects may perpetuate inequities, creating data-abundant and data-impoverished areas. Navigating a path forward for participatory sciences is the US is challenging because new federal, state, and local laws limit efforts towards broadening engagement. I will share political, social, and learning experiences of the Inclusive, Diverse, Equitable, Accessible, Large-scale (IDEAL) participatory science program. We will take a closer look at the field of Ornithology, where iconic citizen science projects have shaped the norms and expectations of other disciplines across the field of participatory sciences. Patterns of engagement in avian citizen science warrants examining the scientific systems and cultures that are foundational to citizen science.
Caren Cooper, PhD is a professor in the College of Natural Resources at North Carolina State University, where she created a graduate Certificate in Participatory Sciences. Her early career was at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. She has promoted the rigorous and ethical practice of citizen science through her publications, books, and resources such as the Data Ethics Toolkit and the Inclusive, Diverse, Equitable, Accessible, Large-scale (IDEAL) program. Cooper serves as special collections editor for Citizen Science: Theory and Practice (2020+). She is part of international CODATA-WDS Task Groups on Citizen Science (2017-present).
Understanding how disturbance affects birds is crucial to their conservation
Will Cresswell
University of St Andrews, UK
Disturbance makes the ecological world go round. The ecological consequences of disturbance, and the magnitude of these are very similar to non-lethal, but profoundly important effects of predation and interference competition. I will show examples of how bird populations are affected by the starvation-predation risk trade-off and by competition, and how these are exactly analogous to disturbance. How avoidance, whether of predators, competition or disturbance creates cascading ecological effects, and how humans create profound disturbances, often unintentionally. As human populations massively increase, the effects of disturbance on bird populations and their conservation, may then completely trump any other considerations, such as habitat and climate change. Bird species that can behaviourally adapt or evolve to ignore human disturbance end up as winners, and this process can happen very rapidly. Bird communities and species abundance may now be primarily determined by human disturbance in many areas of the world. However, for those species that cannot adapt to human disturbance, or that are affected lethally by humans (i.e. by hunting or other dangers associated with humans or their environments) understanding the consequences of disturbance, and then management of this disturbance is crucial for their conservation. Giving species the time and space to avoid humans, through human behavioural and cultural change, may be as key to many bird population’s survival, as more traditional conservation approaches.
Will Cresswell has been watching animals and birds in the field for as long as he can remember. Research interests since 1989 include predator-prey behavioural interactions, interference competition, how non-lethal effects of predation risk structure avian communities, life history traits of tropical birds, migration and dispersal, and the conservation of birds in agricultural and other anthropogenic habitats. Will has had a NERC and Royal Society University Research Fellowship, was the Lecturer in Ornithology at the Edward Grey Institute and moved to St Andrews University in 2003 where he is currently a Professor of Biology.
Getting a wellbeing boost from birds
Zoe Davies
University of Kent, UK
As John Muir said back in 1915, “In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks”. Indeed, it is now widely accepted across research, policy and practice arenas that contact with nature is fundamental to human health and wellbeing. Compelling evidence shows that the personal and societal benefits people gain from interacting with nature are diverse, including stress-relief, reduced mental fatigue, improved cognitive development in children and greater social interaction. These positive outcomes have become of significant interest to the health sector, as the prevalence and costs allied with treating poor mental health and associated non-communicable diseases (e.g. diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression) are expanding worldwide. While the literature regarding how nature underpins human health is rapidly growing, very little of it has examined how biodiversity plays in boosting wellbeing. The findings from the handful of nature-health studies that have examined objective metrics of biodiversity, such as the number of species and abundance of individuals, show inconsistent outcomes. Here, we will explore how bird species and/or their traits (e.g. colours, sounds, behaviours) elicit responses from people, across different wellbeing domains (physical, emotional, cognitive, social, spiritual and ‘global’ wellbeing, the latter being akin to ‘whole-person health’). Building on this, we have developed the first psychometric scale (‘BIO-WELL for birds’) that specifically examines bird-wellbeing relationships. The scale can be used to help implement interdisciplinary thinking to support biodiversity conservation, citizen science engagement and nature-based public health interventions.
Zoe is a member of the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) at University of Kent. She has diverse research interests, crossing traditional disciplinary boundaries but focusing on the use of empirical data to address questions of importance to conservation management and policy. They can be summarised into the following key themes: conservation practice and policy; biodiversity-human wellbeing relationships; and assessing the impacts of environmental change. Zoe gained a BSc in Zoology at Royal Holloway, University of London, before studying for her PhD at the University of Leeds. After gaining her doctorate, she worked at the Centre for Evidence-Based Conservation (CEBC) in Birmingham, before joining the Biodiversity and Macroecology Group (BIOME) at University of Sheffield as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2010, she was appointed as a Lecturer at DICE and is now Professor of Biodiversity Conservation.
Ethno-ornithology: science and society in dialogue
Andrew Gosler
University of Oxford, UK
“Some writers have objected to the name of Hedge-Sparrow for this species… ..Yet a name which Shakespear has put into the mouth of one of his fools is hardly to be dropped, even at the bidding of the wisest, so long as the English tongue lasts.. .. It may be easy in some cases to change a name which has been only used in technical works, ..but the attempt to meddle with a word which is part and parcel of our language and literature is a very different thing.” So wrote the BOU’s founder, Alfred Newton of Accentor (now Prunella) modularis in 1871. Indeed, the folk-name Dunnock was chosen for its taxonomic neutrality. Newton was clear on the importance of culture in shaping human perceptions of birds, from their naming to how scientific discourse about them is framed. This lecture focuses on how British ornithology, which through its Empire influenced the world, developed through the interaction of two cultures: a popular class-based society deeply engaged with the natural world, for whom thousands of local bird folk-names were known and used by all social classes; and a scientific culture with a strong desire to find and understand order, patterns and processes, in nature. Influenced by the work of Charles Darwin and others, a growing and highly educated (male) middle class focused on birds (female focus was directed towards botany) drove this integration. The legacy of this foundation is influential still, and relevant to addressing the nature disconnect of contemporary post-industrial societies.
Andrew Gosler holds a joint position as Professor of Ethno-ornithology at the University of Oxford between the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology and Institute of Human Sciences, of which he is Director. His research over more than 40 years spans pure and applied ornithology, including avian eco-morphology and body-condition, the function of eggshell speckling, the etymology of bird names, the natural-history knowledge of post-industrial human communities, and the role of religion in environmental stewardship. He is Research Director for the Ethno-ornithology World Atlas (EWA) project, and a Fellow of Mansfield College, Oxford.
The origins, dispersal and evolutionary history of chickens
Greger Larson
University of Oxford, UK
There are approximately 80 billion chickens on Earth which makes them by far the most numerous domestic animal. Despite their ubiquity, there has been little consensus regarding the timing or location or circumstances of their domestication. We are continuing to explore when, where, and how chickens first became associated with human societies, what happened next, how their close proximity to people drove the evolution of Marek’s disease, a highly contagious viral neoplastic disease, and how chickens evolved to disperse into higher latitudes. Here, I’ll discuss a critical assessment of chicken remains described in >600 sites in 89 countries, alongside an evaluation of zoogeographic, morphological, osteometric, stratigraphic, contextual, iconographic, and textual data. I’ll also present studies predicated on direct radiocarbon dating of >20 ancient European chickens and an ancient genomic analysis of the selection pressures on chickens as they dispersed into Western Eurasia. Lastly, I’ll discuss how an ancient DNA approach to Marek’s virus is revealing new insights into the human-mediated selection of the increased virulence of this deadly disease.
Greger Larson received his bachelor’s degree in 1996 from Claremont McKenna College, a small liberal arts college in California. He read just about everything Stephen J Gould ever wrote over the following three years while he wandered the deserts of Turkmenistan and worked for an environmental consultancy in Azerbaijan. Deciding that evolution was cooler than oil, Greger studied at Oxford and the University of Colorado before receiving his PhD in Zoology in 2006. He then spent two years in Uppsala, Sweden on an EMBO postdoctoral fellowship before starting a job in the department of archaeology at Durham University. Greger then moved to Oxford University to become the Director of the Palaeogenomics & Bio-Archaeology Research Network Greger where he is continuing his focus on the use of ancient DNA to study the pattern and process of domestication. He rarely wonders what his salary would be had he stuck to oil.
Who gets to see urban birds? Environmental inequality in African cities
Chevonne Reynolds
University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
I thought I was studying birds, but it turns out I was studying privilege. We spend millions counting birds, but we rarely ask who gets to see them? Cities function as strong socio-ecological filters that create winners and losers among both birds and people. These filters create inequalities in access to urban nature, but we still struggle with clear solutions to address them.
As urban populations grow globally, access to urban nature becomes increasingly important for human wellbeing. African cities are at the epicenter of this challenge, expanding faster than anywhere else while supporting exceptional bird diversity alongside extreme inequality. Birds provide an ideal lens for examining urban environmental inequality because they respond sensitively to urban change and are charismatic and well-liked.
Our research on birds across African cities demonstrates the complexity of this challenge. While cities generally support lower bird species richness than rural areas, within cities wealthy neighborhoods consistently support greater bird diversity than poorer areas. However, these disparities extend beyond species counts into ecosystem services. For example, community surveys revealed which bird species people find most appealing. When these preferences are mapped against actual distributions, wealthy communities consistently have greater access to culturally valued species. In short, socioeconomic status determines not just which birds people encounter, but their qualitative experiences of urban nature.
Our research exposes how environmental injustice is embedded in our cities. These patterns are complex, they matter for human wellbeing, and they need urgent attention. The challenge remains how do we create cities where both people and nature can thrive?
Chevonne Reynolds is an Associate Professor, landscape ecologist and ornithologist at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. She completed her PhD on waterbird ecological function and postdoc on land use change and bird communities at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology. Since joining Wits in 2018, she has focused more on urban systems—how could you not when living in this mega-city? Her research extensively uses citizen science and open data to understand socio-ecological dynamics in African cities.
Houghton Trust Keynote Speaker
Complex interplay between birds, humans and the environment for modern disease threats
Ian Brown
The Pirbright Institute, UK
The interplay between birds, humans, and the environment in modern disease threats is a classic One Health challenge, where ecological, behavioural, and anthropogenic factors converge to influence pathogen dynamics. Migratory birds transport pathogens globally along flyways, including avian influenza, West Nile virus, and bacteria like Campylobacter and Salmonella. Birds often carry pathogens asymptomatically, making surveillance difficult and increasing the risk of unnoticed spillover. Urban dwelling birds have been found to harbour antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, creating additional public health challenges. Environmental factors can have a profound effect on disease incidence and spread. Climate change alters bird migration routes and habitats, expanding the geographic range of pathogens and vectors. Water systems act as reservoirs for pathogens such as avian influenza viruses that are shed in faeces, enabling transmission to other wild birds, domestic poultry, captive birds and some mammalian hosts, i.e. pig, dairy cattle and potentially to humans. Furthermore, habitat degradation and biodiversity loss reduce ecosystem resilience, increasing opportunities for disease emergence. Finally, direct consequences of human activities can have a major impact on disease threats. These include land-use change (deforestation, agriculture) intensifying human to bird contact, facilitating spillover events. Global poultry trade intersects with wild bird migration, amplifying the spread of diseases such as high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) viruses worldwide. Practices like wildlife feeding, poor waste management, and urbanization create hotspots for pathogen exchange between birds and humans. The convergence of avian ecology, human behaviour, and environmental change creates a dynamic system where disease threats can emerge and spread rapidly. This emphasises the need for integrated surveillance (wildlife, livestock, human health), environmental monitoring (water, soil contamination) and policy interventions targeting issues such as land-use practices, poultry trade, and Anti-Microbial Resistant bacteria containment. HPAI has created one of the largest modern day global disease threats with significant impacts on biodiversity, health and wellbeing of wildlife populations especially including birds with no immediate solutions in sight. HPAI will form part of a detailed case study in the presentation.
Ian Brown provides disease consultancy internationally and nationally to a wide range of stakeholders primarily on avian influenza. As a birder the natural link between disease and birds is something he has closely studied in his career. His specific research interests include epidemiology, vaccination, pathogenicity, transmission and infection dynamics in relation to the control of influenza in animal hosts including zoonotic threat. Ian holds a visiting Professorship position in Avian Virology at the University of Nottingham.
xxxxx
xxxxx
The Houghton Trust Keynote Lecture is kindly sponsored by The Houghton Trust, promoting research into avian diseases. Read more about The Houghton Trust here.
Scientific Programme Committee
Nishant Kumar | Ambedkar University Delhi & National Centre for Biological Sciences (TIFR), Bengaluru, India & University of Oxford, UK (Chair)
Tatsuya Amano | University of Queensland, Australia
Kristina Beck | Senckenberg Research Institute, Germany
Joelene Hughes | RSPB, UK & BOU Meetings Committee
Barry McMahon | University College Dublin, Ireland & BOU Meetings Committee
Alice Risely | University of Salford, UK & BOU Meetings Committee
Umesh Srinivasan | Indian Institute of Science, India