Ian Newton – Findings from a Long-term Study of Sparrowhawks

Dr. Ian Newton is respected world-wide both as a biologist with a special interest and expertise in this subject and as a communicator. He is a seasoned and popular key note speaker at National and International meetings, and his talks are often the high point of conferences.

He has been interested in birds since boyhood, and as a teenager developed a particular fascination with finches, which later led to doctoral and post-doctoral studies on these birds. Later in life he became known for his penetrating field studies of bird populations, notably on raptors. He is now a senior ecologist with the Natural Environment Research Council, and visiting professor of ornithology at the University of Oxford. Most of his research has been in Scotland, but he has also spent a sabbatical year with the Canadian Wildlife Service, studying waterfowl, and is a frequent visitor to research groups in the United States and elsewhere.

He has published more than 200 scientific papers on birds, and several books, including Finches (1972), Population Ecology of Raptors (1979), The Sparrowhawk (1986), Lifetime Reproduction in Birds (edited, 1989), Population Limitation in Birds (1998), The Speciation and Biogeography of Birds (2003), and Ecology and Conservation of Owls (2002). He has served as President of the British Ecological Society, Vice-president of the British Ornithologists’ Union, and is honorary member of the American Ornithologists’ Union. He has received several prestigious awards for research and conservation, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1993.