31 March 2026
-
2 April 2026
IN-PERSON (INTERNATIONAL)
UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM, UK & ZOOM & BLUESKY
VENUE
Birds and people: challenges and opportunities of coexistence
Call for abstracts
The call for abstracts is now open. We invite abstract submissions for talk, poster and Bluesky-only presentations. Talk and poster presenters are expected to deliver their presentation in-person. Bluesky-only presenters may deliver their presentation without registering to attend the conference.
Submit talk abstract
Submit poster abstract
Submit Bluesky-only abstract
Deadline: 1 September 2025 (23:59 BST)
We do not automatically confirm receipt of abstracts. If you would like to check your abstract has been received, please contact us.
Registration
Registration will open in November 2025. Delegates will have the option to attend either in-person or online via Zoom. Delegates electing to attend in-person may choose between registration with accommodation included (single or twin occupancy rooms at The Jubilee Hotel on campus) or without accommodation.
View indicative registration rates (subject to change).
Aims and scope
Relationships between birds and people are manifold. Positively, bird species survival can be assisted by people – the crucial conservation of species and their habitats demands people’s skills, time and money – while people can also be helped by birds, for example through pest control, or by providing the health and wellbeing benefits of nature connection gained through watching, feeding or listening to birds. However, there are also negative relationships as birds can cause damage to human resources, for example, crops, livestock and transport, plus people harm birds, for example through spreading disease, hunting and recreational disturbance. With climatic, political and economic pressures changing the environment for both birds and people throughout the world, it is crucial that we understand more about how to navigate these relationships for the benefit of all. In this conference, we examine the complexities of the relationships between birds and people to understand more about how birds and people can live together. We will provide an optimistic note for the future of birds and their people by hearing about recent conservation successes while learning more about the current anthropogenic threats they face. We will hear about the latest science on minimising the challenges birds may pose to human interests and maximising the benefits they provide. By drawing on science and research from around the world, the conference aims to provide an insightful look into bird-people relationships and provide inspirational ideas about how we can coexist in the future.
Human-bird conflicts and how to mitigate them:
- e.g., hunting, impacts on crops & fisheries, disease, renewables, nuisance, development, pollution.
- Examples of win-win strategies that mitigate these conflicts equitably and engagedly.
Understanding and accessing the benefits of birds to people:
- e.g. services and nature-based solutions involving birds.
- How to quantify benefits and how these are recognised and valued by people e.g. pollination, food for people, seed dispersal, arts, health and wellbeing insect control.
The cultural and social importance of birds and how these shape people’s views/interactions with birds:
- e.g. bird watching, bird feeding, and specific species of cultural and symbolic significance (myths, arts, religion).
Inclusivity and equality in ornithology:
- e.g., limitations to engagement and barriers to birding, how barriers have been addressed, what has helped enable people from underrepresented audiences to engage in ornithology.
- What makes ornithology appealing e.g. through citizen science and educational practices
Species conservation successes:
- Species-specific achievements and their impact.
- Stories of being bird conservationist – challenges and opportunities.
Alfred Newton Lecture
The Alfred Newton Lecture is the BOU’s prestige lecture delivered by an internationally renowned figure on the theme of the annual conference.
Claire Spottiswoode
Pola Pasvolsky Chair in Conservation Biology, FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Co-Director of the Max Planck–UCT Centre for Behaviour and Coevolution
Claire Spottiswoode is an evolutionary ecologist and naturalist with a particular interest in the ecology, evolution and conservation of species interactions. She runs two long-term field projects on African birds, in close collaboration with communities in Zambia and Mozambique. In southern Zambia (since 2006), Claire and her group study coevolution between brood-parasitic birds (such as cuckoos, honeyguides and parasitic finches) and the hosts that they exploit to raise their young. In northern Mozambique (since 2013), they focus on the mutually beneficial interactions between honeyguides and the human honey-hunters with whom they cooperate to gain access to bees’ nests. Aside from parasitism and mutualism, Claire is widely interested in ecology, evolution, ornithology and conservation, and has also worked on avian sociality, life-history evolution, pollination, sexual selection, nest camouflage, migration, and the conservation ecology of threatened species in the Horn of Africa and northern Mozambique. After her PhD (2005) Claire worked for many years in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, before returning home to South Africa, where she is currently Pola Pasvolsky Chair in Conservation Biology at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, and Co-Director of the Max Planck–UCT Centre for Behaviour and Coevolution. Most of Clair’s work is inspired by natural history, and she strongly believes in the value of field experiments.
Keynotes
Caren Cooper
North Carolina State University, USA
Is the British love of birds what has made citizen science so great and so problematic?
Will Cresswell
University of St Andrews, UK
Understanding how disturbance affects birds is crucial to their conservation
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Zoe Davies
University of Kent, UK
Getting a wellbeing boost from birds
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Andrew Gosler
University of Oxford, UK
Ethno-ornithology: science and society in dialogue
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Gregor Larson
University of Oxford, UK
The origins, dispersal and evolutionary history of chickens
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Chevonne Reynolds
University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
From concrete to culture: urban birds, citizen science and the human dimensions of ornithology in Africa
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Houghton Trust Keynote Speaker
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The Houghton Trust Keynote Lecture is kindly sponsored by The Houghton Trust, promoting research into avian diseases. Read more about The Houghton Trust here.
Ian Brown
The Pirbright Institute, UK
Complex interplay between birds, humans and the environment for modern disease threats
Parallel conference format
The BOU aims to run inclusive and accessible events. One way we seek to achieve this is by delivering our conferences in parallel on a freely accessible social media platform. From 2025 onwards, this has been Bluesky.
All presenters at our conferences will be invited to post a summary of their presentation on Bluesky, and will be provided with helpful guidelines to support them in doing so. No conference registration, or Bluesky account, is required to view these presentations.
Social media has broadened the reach of our conferences, attracting a significantly larger and more diverse audience than meetings without this element.
View previous BOU conferences on Bluesky
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
Image credits
Red-billed Quelea | I’ve Got It On Film! CC BY 2.0 Wikimedia Commons
Kea | Jens Bludau CC BY-SA 3.0 Wikimedia Commons
Hen Harrier | Александр Чегодаев CC0 Wikimedia Commons
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