Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds. It has also been an area with a large contribution made by amateurs in terms of time, resources, and financial support. Studies on birds have helped develop key concepts in biology including evolution, behaviour and ecology such as the definition of species, the process of speciation, instinct, learning, ecological niches, guilds, island biogeography, phylogeography, and conservation.
Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon,, better known as Sir Edward Grey, was a British Liberal statesman and the main force behind British foreign policy in the era of the First World War.
Edward Max Nicholson was a pioneering environmentalist, ornithologist and internationalist, and a founder of the World Wildlife Fund.
The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) is an organisation founded in 1932 for the study of birds in the British Isles. The Prince of Wales has been patron since October 2020.
Wilfrid Backhouse Alexander was an English ornithologist and entomologist. He was a brother of Horace Alexander and Christopher James Alexander.
David Lambert Lack FRS was a British evolutionary biologist who made contributions to ornithology, ecology, and ethology. His 1947 book, Darwin's Finches, on the finches of the Galapagos Islands was a landmark work as were his other popular science books on Life of the Robin and Swifts in a Tower. He developed what is now known as Lack's Principle which explained the evolution of avian clutch sizes in terms of individual selection as opposed to the competing contemporary idea that they had evolved for the benefit of species. His pioneering life-history studies of the living bird helped in changing the nature of ornithology from what was then a collection-oriented field. He was a longtime director of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at the University of Oxford.
Christopher Miles Perrins, is Emeritus Fellow of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at the University of Oxford, Emeritus Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford and Her Majesty's Warden of the Swans since 1993.
The Reverend Francis Charles Robert Jourdain M.A., F.Z.S., M.B.O.U., was a notable British amateur ornithologist and oologist. He was primarily known for his extensive research into the breeding biology of the birds of the Palaearctic region. He also had interests in the food of British birds and their geographical distribution and strongly encouraged detailed and accurate record keeping in local ornithology. Known for his temper, he came be known by the nickname Pastor Pugnax. He was a founder of the British Oological Association, which changed its name after his death to the Jourdain Society in his memory.
Robert Eric Ricklefs is an American ornithologist and ecologist. He was the Curators' Professor of Biology at the University of Missouri, St. Louis from 1996 until August 2019.
Denis Frank Owen was a British ecologist, naturalist, author, broadcaster and teacher.
Timothy Robert Birkhead is a British ornithologist. He has been Professor of Behaviour and Evolution at the University of Sheffield since 1976.
Hans Lukas "Luc" Hoffmann was a Swiss ornithologist, conservationist, and philanthropist. He co-founded the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), helped establish the Ramsar Convention for the protection of wetlands, and set up the Tour du Valat research centre in the Camargue area of France. In 2012, Luc Hoffmann's MAVA Foundation, along with WWF International, established the Luc Hoffmann Institute. He was the author of more than 60 books, mostly ornithological.
Henry Neville "Mick" Southern was an English ornithologist.
Nelson Philip Ashmole, commonly known as Philip Ashmole, is an English zoologist and conservationist. His main research field focused on the avifauna of islands, including Saint Helena, Ascension Island, Tenerife, the Azores, and Kiritimati. Other interests include insects and spiders, of which Ashmole discovered and described some new taxa.
Monica Turner was an English ornithologist who was the first woman ornithologist to acquire a doctorate in Britain, in 1952. She published under her maiden name Monica Betts. Her thesis was entitled The Availability of Food and Predation by the Genus Parus and examined bird populations in the woods in Wytham Woods near Oxford and the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, under the guidance of David Lack.
Kathy Martin is a global authority on arctic and alpine grouse and ptarmigan, and on tree cavity-nesting vertebrates. She is a professor in the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia and a senior research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
John Leonard Frederick Parslow (1935–2015) was an English ornithologist and author.
Ben C. Sheldon is the Luc Hoffmann Chair in Field Ornithology and Director of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology of the University of Oxford's Department of Zoology. He was Head of the Department of Zoology between 2016-2021.
Elizabeth Lack (1916–2015) was a British Ornithologist and Researcher, best known for her contributions to the massive reference book, A Dictionary of Birds.
The Department of Biology, established in 2022, is a science department in the University of Oxford's Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division. It was formed on 1 August 2022 after a merger between the Department of Plant Sciences and Department of Zoology.
