Birdwatching, or birding, is a form of wildlife observation in which the observation of birds is a recreational activity or citizen science. It can be done with the naked eye, through a visual enhancement device like binoculars and telescopes, by listening for bird sounds, or by watching public webcams.
The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) is an organisation founded in 1932 for the study of birds in the British Isles.
The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its members are primarily professional ornithologists although membership is open to anyone with an interest in birds. The AOS is a member of the Ornithological Council and Ornithological Societies of North America (OSNA). The society publishes the two scholarly journals The Auk and The Condor as well as the AOS Checklist of North American Birds.
BirdWatch Ireland (BWI) is a voluntary conservation organisation devoted to the conservation and protection of wild birds and their habitats in Ireland. It was formerly known as the Irish Wildbird Conservancy (IWC). Irish Wildbird Conservancy was founded in 1968, among others by Major Robert (Robin) Ruttledge, an Irish ornithologist who became its first president.
Selwyn George (Bill) Lane E.D. R.L. (1922–2000) was an Australian amateur ornithologist who worked for the Sydney County Council for most of life until he retired in 1983. He joined the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) in 1947, was a State Representative for New South Wales on that body from 1964 until 1967, and a Vice-President from 1968 to 1969. He was elected a Fellow of the RAOU in 1983. He was a founding member and President of the Australian Bird Study Association.
The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), now part of BirdLife Australia, was Australia's largest non-government, non-profit, bird conservation organisation. It was founded in 1901 to promote the study and conservation of the native bird species of Australia and adjacent regions, making it Australia's oldest national birding association. In 1996, the organisation adopted the trading name of Birds Australia for most public purposes, while retaining its original name for legal purposes and as the publisher of its journal, the Emu. In 2012, the RAOU merged with Bird Observation & Conservation Australia to form BirdLife Australia.
Pauline Neura Reilly OAM FRAOU was an Australian ornithologist and author of children's books.
Herbert Thomas Condon was an Australian museum curator and ornithologist. He was born in Melbourne and attended the University of Adelaide. In 1929, Condon joined the scientific staff of the South Australian Museum; he was promoted to Assistant in Zoology in 1935, and became Curator of Birds and Reptiles in 1938. He kept this position for the decades through to 1976, broken only by a period of war service with the RAAF.
The Adelaide Ornithologists' Club (AOC) was founded by Alan Lendon, a leading surgeon and prominent aviculturist, in 1960, as a breakaway group from the South Australian Ornithological Association, with John Neil McGilp as its first President. It followed dissension within the SAOA about the live bird export trade, in which the Adelaide Zoo was a leading player and Lendon a member of the Zoo Council. The AOC was formed with the explicit aim of promoting the study of birds. The pattern established in the early years and still maintained is that the club has an evening meeting and a Sunday outing each month except for December and January. Meetings typically include an address on a subject of relevance to ornithology, a section called bird notes devoted to recent sightings of interest, and "bird of the month", a section presented by a club member and offering a brief view of a particular bird species or bird family. Sunday outings visit local bird watching spots for identification in the field. Once a year there is a Spring Excursion for a week to an area further afield. Each year the club produces a magazine entitled "Bird Talk" with summaries of the outings and other articles about birds. The club welcomes new members. Its web site's URL is www.adelaideornithologists.com.
Australasian Ornithological Conferences are biennial meetings of ornithologists that focus on the Australasian region and Antarctica. Preceded by the short-lived series of two Southern Hemisphere Ornithological Congresses, they were initiated by the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), also known as Birds Australia, with the inaugural meeting held at Bathurst, New South Wales in 2001. They have subsequently been jointly sponsored by the BirdLife Australia and the Ornithological Society of New Zealand (OSNZ).
Alan Harding Lendon (1903–1973) was a South Australian surgeon, aviculturist and amateur ornithologist. He was a member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), and served it as President in 1966–1967. He was also strongly associated with the South Australian Ornithological Association (SAOA) until a schism in the membership, regarding the necessity of controlling the live bird export trade, led him in 1960 to form a breakaway group, the Adelaide Ornithologists Club.
John Neil McGilp OBE was a South Australian pastoralist and amateur ornithologist. He was a foundation member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), and served as President of the organisation in 1938-1939. He was also President of the South Australian Ornithological Association (SAOA) in 1935-1936 and 1948-1949. He was also the founding President of the Adelaide Ornithologists Club in 1960. A keen oologist, he presented the South Australian Museum with his comprehensive collection of some 2500 clutches of the eggs of Australian birds.
Edwin Ashby was an Adelaide based Australian property developer and a noted malacologist interested in chitons and ornithologist. He was a founding member of the South Australian Ornithological Association (SAOA) in 1899, and of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) in 1901 for which he served as president 1926. The avian genus Ashbyia was named for him by Gregory Mathews.
Michael Stanley Reid Sharland (1899–1987) was an Australian journalist, photographer, author and amateur ornithologist. He was born, and spent most of his life, in Tasmania, though he also lived and worked in Sydney, Melbourne and London.
Captain Samuel Albert White was a wealthy Australian racehorse owner, soldier, explorer, conservationist and amateur ornithologist. He was born in Fulham, South Australia and eventually died there. He fought in the South African War 1900–1903, reaching the rank of captain, which title he continued to use throughout his life. He made several private ornithological collecting expeditions across remote areas of Australia, to Alice Springs (1913), Musgrave and Everard Ranges (1914), Cooper Creek (1916), Nullarbor Plain (1917-1918), Finke River (1921), and Adelaide to Darwin and return (1922), on behalf of Gregory Mathews.
Joan Burton Paton née Cleland was an Australian teacher, naturalist, environmentalist and ornithologist. One of the first women to become a member of the exclusive Adelaide Ornithologists Club, of which she was elected President 1991-1993, she also served as president of the South Australian Ornithological Association (1979-1982). Her father was Professor Sir John Burton Cleland, a notable microbiologist and pathologist who strongly encouraged her early interest in natural history.
Newsletter for Birdwatchers is an Indian periodical of ornithology and birdwatching founded in 1960 by Zafar Futehally, who edited it until 2003. It was initially mimeographed and distributed to a small number of subscribers each month. The editorial board in its early years included Salim Ali, Biswamoy Biswas and other ornithologists in the region. The nature of the articles was largely informal and often essay-like. Important observations were often republished in other journals such as the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, however the outreach of more serious journals to amateur birdwatchers in the region was limited.
Kenneth (Ken) Nigel Graham Simpson was an Australian ornithologist and ornithological writer best known as the coauthor, with artist Nicolas Day, of the Simpson & Day field guide to Australian birds.
