# Witherby Memorial Lecture

The Witherby Memorial Lecture is an academic lectureship awarded by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) annually since 1968. The memorial lecture is in memorandum of Harry Forbes Witherby, a former owner of Witherby, who previously published ornithological books.

## Lectures

| Year | Lecturer | Subject |
| 1968 | Arthur Landsborough Thomson | The sub-species concept |
| 1969 | David Lack | The number of bird species on islands |
| 1970 | H. N. Southern | Tawny Owls |
| 1971 | E. M. Nicholson | Geograms |
| 1972 | Peter Scott | Species extinction in birds |
| 1973 | Beryl Patricia Hall | Speciation and specialisation |
| 1974 | Desmond Nethersole-Thompson | Greenshanks |
| 1975 | J. C. Coulson | Ringing as an ecological tool |
| 1976 | Geoge Dunnet | The ages of birds – adolescence and senility |
| 1977 | David Snow | The relationships between the African and European avifaunas |
| 1979 | Stanley Cramp | Ornithology and bird conservation |
| 1980 | Derek Ratcliffe | The Peregrine falcon |
| 1981 | W. G. Hale | The biology of the Redshank |
| 1982 | Janet Kear | Some thoughts on eggs |
| 1983 | Chris Perrins | A study of the Great tit |
| 1984 | Patrick Bateson | Imprinting in young birds |
| 1985 | Ian Newton | Individual performance in Sparrowhawks |
| 1986 | C. H. Fry | The Bee-eaters |
| 1987 | Fred Cooke | Natural selection in Snow Geese |
| 1988 | P. R. Evans | Migration strategies of shorebirds |
| 1989 | John Krebs, Baron Krebs | Food hoarding in tits |
| 1991 | J. D. Goss-Custard | The importance of scale in the study of bird populations |
| 1992 | Dick Potts | Is there a future for farmland birds? |
| 1993 | Peter Berthold | Some new developments in bird migration research |
| 1994 | John Lawton | All change? Numbers and range in the field and in the mind |
| 1995 | A. Watson | Thinking, practice and people in bird population ecology |
| 1996 | M. Owen | Wildlife and water: partnerships for effective action |
| 1997 | M. P. Harris | Individuality in a densely colonial seabird: the Common Guillemot |
| 1998 | J. P Croxall | Albatrosses, Fisheries and Futures |
| 1999 | D. T. Parkin | Birding and DNA |
| 2000 | David Harper | The public and private lives of Robins |
| 2001 | Franz Bairlein | The study of bird migration: where to go? |
| 2002 | Nicholas Barry Davies | Cuckoo versus host |
| 2003 | David Murray Bryant | Swallows – life in an uncertain world |
| 2004 | Pat Monaghan | Bad beginnings and untimely ends: Life history trade-offs in birds |
| 2005 | W. J. Sutherland | Science and Conservation |
| 2006 | Theunis Piersma | What is it like to be a Knot? Towards a cognitive ecology of shorebirds |
| 2007 | Mick Marquiss | Case studies with predatory birds |
| 2008 | Peter Grant | Evolution of Darwin's finches |
| 2009 | Fernando Spina | Birds and rings across the Mediterranean: the role of ringing for science and for conservation in Italy |
| 2010 | Tim Birkhead | Sperm and Eggs: Promiscuity in birds |
| 2011 | Rhys Green | Birth, death and bird conservation |
| 2012 | Sarah Wanless | An Exaltation of Auks |
| 2013 | Graham Martin | Through Birds' Eyes |
| 2014 | Kevin Gaston | Birds in an urbanising world |
| 2015 | Jenny Gill [Wikidata] | Migration in space and time |
| 2016 | Ben Sheldon | Coping with a variable world: plasticity and social learning in Great tit |
| 2017 | Stuart Bearhop | The ups and downs of an extreme migrant |
| 2018 | Jane Reid | Ringing, Birding, Migration Ecology & Evolution |
| 2019 | Bob Furness | What have the ringers ever done for us? How amateurs make British ornithology great. |
| 2020 | Caren Cooper | Flock Together: Innovations Migrating Across Citizen Science |
| 2021 | Claire Spottiswoode | Coevolution as an engine of biodiversity: insights from African birds |
| 2022 | Professor Peter Marra | Studying Birds in the Context of the Full Annual Cycle |