Ian Newton

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Ian Newton OBE FRS FRSE (born 17 January 1940) is an English ornithologist.

Contents

Education and early life

Newton was born and raised in north Derbyshire and was educated at Chesterfield Grammar School. He graduated from the University of Bristol. [1] He received his D.Phil. in 1964 and D.Sc. in 1982 from the University of Oxford, [2] and has studied a wide range of bird species.

Career and research

He has been interested in birds since his childhood. [3] As a teenager he became particularly fascinated by finches and undertook doctoral and post-doctoral studies on them. [4] Newton conducted a 27-year study of a Eurasian sparrowhawk population nesting in southern Scotland, which resulted in what many consider to be the most detailed and longest-running study of any population of birds of prey. [5]

Before retirement, he was Senior Ornithologist at the United Kingdom's Natural Environment Research Council. He has also been head of the Avian Biology Section at the Monks Wood Research Station (1989–2000), Chairman of the Board of The Peregrine Fund, Chairman of the Council of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, [5] Chairman of Saving India's Vultures from Extinction, [6] and visiting professor of ornithology at the University of Oxford. [4] Newton has also held the positions of President of the British Ornithologists' Union and the British Ecological Society (1994–1995). [7]

Partial bibliography

Honours and awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ornithology</span> Study of birds

Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eurasian sparrowhawk</span> Species of bird

The Eurasian sparrowhawk, also known as the northern sparrowhawk or simply the sparrowhawk, is a small bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. Adult male Eurasian sparrowhawks have bluish grey upperparts and orange-barred underparts; females and juveniles are brown above with brown barring below. The female is up to 25% larger than the male – one of the greatest size differences between the sexes in any bird species. Though it is a predator which specialises in catching woodland birds, the Eurasian sparrowhawk can be found in any habitat and often hunts garden birds in towns and cities. Males tend to take smaller birds, including tits, finches and sparrows; females catch primarily thrushes and starlings but are capable of killing birds weighing 500 g (18 oz) or more.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European rock pipit</span> Small passerine bird that breeds in western Europe

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Christopher John Mead was a popular British ornithologist, author and broadcaster, and an influential member of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William MacGillivray</span> Scottish naturalist and ornithologist (1796–1852)

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Ronald Arthur Overton Hickling was a British ornithologist. He served as president of the Leicestershire and Rutland Ornithological Society. He died in Rothley, Leicestershire, at the age of 93.

James Denis Summers-Smith was a Scottish ornithologist and mechanical engineer, a specialist both in sparrows and in industrial tribology.

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References

  1. 1 2 Ian Newton | Collins Archived 2013-12-20 at the Wayback Machine . The New Naturalists Online. Retrieved 3 December 2009
  2. 1 2 "Newton, Prof. Ian, (born 17 Jan. 1940)". www.ukwhoswho.com. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u29431. ISBN   978-0-19-954088-4 . Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  3. Newton, Ian (1986) The Sparrowhawk. T & A.D. Poyser Ltd. Calton. ISBN   0-85661-041-0
  4. 1 2 Ian Newton. The Migration Ecology of Birds Archived 2010-01-20 at the Wayback Machine . Buteo Books. Retrieved 3 December 2009
  5. 1 2 Newton, I. (2009) Introduction. In R.T. Watson, M. Fuller, M. Pokras, and W.G. Hunt (Eds.). Ingestion of Lead from Spent Ammunition: Implications for Wildlife and Humans. The Peregrine Fund, Boise, Idaho, USA. DOI 10.4080/ilsa.2009.0091
  6. Bowden, Christopher GR (31 August 2017). "The creation of the SAVE consortium – Saving Asia's Vultures from Extinction: a possible model for Africa?". Ostrich. 88 (2): 189–193. doi:10.2989/00306525.2017.1331583. ISSN   0030-6525.
  7. 1 2 Ian Newton. Researcher Results. The Peregrine Fund. Retrieved 3 December 2009
  8. "RSE Fellows" (PDF). Royal Society of Edinburgh. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 June 2004. Retrieved 10 January 2011.
  9. "Winners of our President's Medal".