Conservation of birds that cross continents and cultures

02/03/2022
Juliet Vickery, CEO British Trust for Ornithology

We will be meeting in person in Room 109 in the Palmer Building at usual, but you can also join remotely via Zoom if you prefer.  Please click here to join the meeting. You can join from 7.45 pm and the meeting will start at 8 pm.  You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.

Professor Juliet Vickery is a distinguished ornithological research scientist and conservation leader. Until recently, she was Head of International Conservation Science at the RSPB, then two years ago became the CEO of the British Trust for Ornithology. She will talk to us about her seminal work on Wood Warblers in the UK and Africa.

The phenomenon of bird migration has fascinated and inspired for generations – thousands of birds travelling astonishing distances across ecological barriers of deserts mountains and seas. But for many species life is getting tougher on their wintering, breeding or staging grounds, resulting in long term declines in numbers. By focusing on work on one species, the Wood Warbler, in one of the main global flyways, the African Eurasian flyway, this talk will illustrate the challenge of understanding the drivers of declines of migrant birds. Professor Vickery will describe the results of work on their breeding grounds in UK and and wintering and staging grounds in Sub Saharan West Africa, and she will consider how we can use these results to inform future action to address declines of these widespread long-distance travellers and to what extent this action may benefit other migrant birds in the same flyway.