British Ornithologists' Union

The British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) aims to encourage the study of birds (ornithology) around the world in order to understand their biology and aid their conservation. The BOU was founded in 1858 by Professor Alfred Newton, Henry Baker Tristram and other scientists.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Its quarterly journal, Ibis, has been published continuously since 1859.

The Records Committee (BOURC) is a committee of the BOU established to maintain the British List, the official list of birds recorded in Great Britain.

BOU is headquartered in Peterborough and is a registered charity in England & Wales and Scotland.<ref>Template:EW charity</ref><ref>Template:Scottish charity</ref>

Objectives and activities

• Publishes Ibis as a leading international journal of ornithological science.
• Organizes a program of meetings and conferences.
• Awards grants and bursaries for ornithological research.
• Encourages liaison between those actively engaged in ornithological research.
• Provides a representative body of the scientific community able to provide ornithological information and advice to the government and other policy makers.
• Maintains and publishes the official list of birds recorded in Britain – The British List.

Records committee

The British Ornithologists' Union Records Committee (BOURC) is the recognized national bird records committee for Britain. It maintains a list of birds in Britain. Its findings are published in Ibis, the house journal of its parent body, the British Ornithologists' Union (BOU). From time to time, BOURC re-reviews records that it has previously accepted to ensure they are acceptable in light of improved knowledge of the species in question.

The Committee does not assess records of birds from Ireland; that task is carried out by the Irish Rare Birds Committee, which publishes its decisions in Irish Birds. For many years, records of IRBC-assessed rarities were included in the BOURC's reports, but this ceased in 2002, at the request of IRBC.<ref>Rogers, Michael J. and the Rarities Committee (2002) Report on rare birds in Great Britain in 2001 Template:Webarchive British Birds 95(10): 476-528</ref>

BOURC is widely recognized as maintaining the most authoritative list of birds in Britain.<ref>The BOU website Template:Webarchive lists the following organisations as having indicated that they regard the decisions on status and taxonomy reached by BOURC as comprising the 'official' British List: British Trust for Ornithology, Countryside Council for Wales, English Nature, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Ornithologists' Club, Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust and The Wildlife Trusts.</ref>

BOURC has a chairman, a secretary and a number of voting members. It previously had a taxonomic subcommittee set up to advise on taxonomic matters, but the disbanding of this subcommittee was announced on 6 November 2015; the BOU now contemplates relying entirely on one of the available global avian taxonomies with a view to adopting a single system for all its activities.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Committee and taxonomic reports

The Committee publishes an annual report in Ibis (the BOU's international journal of avian science). All reports can be accessed via the British List pages of the BOU website.

Previously, the Committee's Taxonomic Sub-committee also published regular reports, also in Ibis, and these too can be accessed via the British List pages of the BOU website.

The Druridge Bay curlew

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Following a detailed review by the British Birds Rarities Committee into the controversial identification of a curlew seen at Druridge Bay in Northumberland in 1998, which came to the conclusion that it was, as had been believed by many observers, a first-summer slender-billed curlew, this identification was accepted by BOURC, leading to the addition of this species to the British List.<ref>Steele, Jimmy and Didier Vangeluwe (2002) From the Rarities Committee's files: the Slender-billed Curlew at Druridge Bay, Northumberland, in 1998 British Birds 95(6):279-299</ref><ref name="BOURC29">Template:Cite journal</ref> A subsequent review of the record overturned the original decision Ibis 156 :236-242.<ref name="BOURC42">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Awards and lectures

The following are awarded:<ref name="about the bou">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• Godman-Salvin Medal
• Union Medal (known as the "Janet Kear Union Medal" from 2019)<ref name="JKUM">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• Alfred Newton Lecture

List of presidents

• 1858–1867: Henry Maurice Drummond-Hay (1814–1896)
• 1867–1896: Lord Lilford (1833–1896)
• 1896–1913: Frederick DuCane Godman (1834–1919)
• 1913–1918: Robert George Wardlaw-Ramsay (1852–1921)
• 1918–1921: William Eagle Clarke (1853–1938)
• 1921–1922: Henry John Elwes (1846–1922)
• 1923–1928: Lord Walter Rothschild (1868–1937)
• 1928–1933: William Lutley Sclater (1863–1944)
• 1933–1938: Harry Witherby (1873–1943)
• 1938–1943: Sir Norman Boyd Kinnear (1882–1957)
• 1943–1948: Percy Roycroft Lowe (1870–1948)
• 1948–1955: Sir Arthur Landsborough Thomson (1890–1977)
• 1955–1960: William Homan Thorpe (1902–1986)
• 1960–1965: Reginald Ernest Moreau (1897–1970)
• 1965–1970: V. C. Wynne-Edwards (1906–1997)
• 1970–1975: Guy Mountfort (1905–2003)
• 1975–1979: Sir Hugh Elliott (1913–1989)
• 1979–1983: Stanley Cramp (1913–1987)
• 1983–1987: James F. Monk (1915–2014)
• 1987–1990: David Snow
• 1990–1994: Janet Kear (1933–2004)
• 1994–1999: John Croxall
• 1999–2003: Ian Newton
• 2003–2007: Christopher Perrins
• 2007–2011: Alistair Dawson (Centre for Ecology & Hydrology)
• 2011–2015: Jenny Gill (University of East Anglia)
• 2015–2019: Keith Hamer (University of Leeds)
• 2019–2023: Juliet Vickery (RSPB/BTO)

Honorary life members

The following have been elected as honorary life members:<ref name="BOU_awards">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• Template:Ill (Germany)
• Template:Ill (France)
• Paul F. Donald (UK)
• Urs N. Glutz von Blotzheim (Switzerland)
• Andrew G. Gosler (UK)
• Soekarja Somadikarta (Indonesia)
• Template:Ill (Sweden)

See also

• British Ornithologists' Union checklists
• British Birds Rarities Committee

External links

• Template:Commonscatinline
• Template:Official website