An interview with Michael Hurben, author of ‘The Physics of Birds and Birding’, published by Pelagic Publishing. Dr. Michael Hurben received his Ph.D. in Physics in 1996 from Colorado State University, where his work was focused on magnetic resonance. He has managed to compile a life list exceeding 5,050 species despite being legally blind. He and his wife Claire currently live in Bloomington, Minnesota. He blogs at legallyblindbirding.net. How did this book come about? I’ve […]
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BOC Blog
Robert Cheke, Sunbirds of the World
An interview with Robert Cheke, lead author of ‘Sunbirds of the World’, published by Bloomsbury Publishing, in the Helm Identifications Guides series. Robert Cheke is Professor Emeritus of Tropical Zoology at the Natural Resources Institute of the University of Greenwich and a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London’s Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology. His work has frequently taken him to sub-Saharan Africa, where he has been able to follow his passion for sunbirds. The book […]
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Clive Slater, John Henry Gurney: A Passion for Birds
‘John Henry Gurney: A Passion for Birds’ was published in 2025 by John Beaufoy Publishing in association with the British Ornithologists Club. It was authored by Clive Slater, Peter Munday and Ray Williams. Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne interviews the lead author, Clive Slater. Clive Slater read Zoology at King’s College, University of London (1966-1969). Following a career in environmental and public health as a chartered practitioner and university lecturer in the UK and overseas, he […]
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Introducing Sam Thompson
I am a DPhil Biology student at St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford. This year, in partnership with the British Ornithologists’ Club, I’ll be starting a PhD at the Edward Grey Institute, with the aim of developing a better understanding of the many facets of bird behaviour and physiology that lead to incidences of avian collisions with human-made structures. The project will seek to identify common traits between the most collision-prone species, with […]
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Nils van Duivendijk, ID Handbook of European Birds
An interview with Nils van Duivendijk on his book ‘ID Handbook of European Birds’ published by Princeton University Press. The book is published in 2 volumes. It was Birdwatch magazine’s Book of Year for 2024. Nils van Duivendijk has been involved in birding since his childhood. It was in his younger years when his interest in ID started. Studies of the species of the Western Palearctic (Europe, North Africa and the Middle East) have since […]
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Richard and Barbara Mearns, Biographies for Birdwatchers, The Lives of Those Commemorated in Western Palearctic Bird Names
An interview with Richard and Barbara Mearns on their book ‘Biographies for Birdwatchers, The Lives of Those Commemorated in Western Palearctic Bird Names’. Privately published in 2022. 2 softback A4 vols with over 250 portraits (396pp & 266pp). ISBN 978-0-9556739-3-1. £69.99 plus P&P, www.mearnsbooks.com. Reproduced with permission from the Quarterly Newsletter (Issue No. 272, March 2024) of the London Natural History Society. Barbara Mearns was born in Greenock, studied in Edinburgh, and then worked for […]
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