2024-12-31-accounts

President’s statement

Annual Report & Accounts

birds | people | science

BOU.ORG.UK @IBISJOURNAL IBISJOURNAL

IBIS_JOURNAL

@IBIS_JOURNAL

2024

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CONTENTS

President’s Statement	2
Structure, Governance &
Management	3
Objectives & Activities
Mission Statement	4
Council Activities	4
Activities in Scotland	5
Achievements & Performance
The BOU Office	6
Awards Nominations Committee
	10
Engagement Committee	11
IBIS Management Committee	13
Meetings Committee	15
Grants Committee	18
Records Committee	22
Membership	24
Financial Review	24
Responsibilities of Trustees	27
Auditor’s Report	28
Annual accounts for 2024	32

Cover image: Grey Heron Ardea cinerea Alexis Lours CC BY 4.0 Wikimedia Commons

President’s statement

Dr Graeme Buchanan

The BOU has again had an active year, delivering upon our mission of promoting ornithological science across the international community, supporting the individuals who contribute to that science, and growing understanding of that science

among a wider community. This continues to be done by a small number of paid staff, led by COO Leila Walker, with the support of Standing Committees of volunteers and the BOU Council. It has been a pleasure for me to lead this group this year.

A list of those who have contributed to operations this year is given in the following pages, including pages 24-25. I would like to give special thanks to the three former Investment Trustees who have given their time to the BOU, in some cases for over 30 years. We have three new trustees in place, and thanks go to Neil Bucknell who has overseen the legal side of the process. I would also like to recognise the contribution of our Honorary Treasurer Graham Appleton, who is stepping down at the upcoming AGM after eight years in the role. Graham has done much more than keep the BOU finances in order over the years, and has been an essential part of Management Group, a great source of counsel for me, and supported Juliet Vickery in the recruitment of Leila as COO. On Juliet, I realise I made a major omission from my review last year, by failing to thank her for the smooth handover in spring 2023. A belated thank you for successfully navigating the BOU through some difficult circumstances during your four years as President.

As detailed in the Annual Report, the BOU has been working hard to maintain its high profile on social media, navigating considerable change, and continuing to promote ornithology, the BOU and IBIS through multiple platforms and media. There are risks associated with the use of social media, and this year we have been updating the BOU’s social media policy to manage those risks. We have also updated a range of other policies including on bullying and harassment, and these have now been included in a set of updated Standing Orders that set out how the BOU is run, and how each Standing Committee operates. This year the BOU have also established a risk register that identifies the major potential threats to the operation of the BOU, and records what steps have been taken or need to be taken to reduce or mitigate these threats.

I’d like to pull out a few highlights from elsewhere in the report. The conference on Urban birds in April was my first spring conference as President and was an excellent opportunity to catch up with old colleagues and meet new people, some of whom I have been corresponding with for a few years. While online conferences increase accessibility and inclusion, in-person conferences have their own benefits. The Avian conservation translocations conference in November demonstrated the benefits of online conferences, with attendees from around the globe. I found the talk

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 3

from my former boss, from when I worked in Mauritius, Carl Jones, stimulating and challenging.

ADMINISTRATION DETAILS

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS’ UNION

Founded 1858 Registered as a Charity: England and Wales, no. 249877 Scotland, no. SC044850

A busy year for the Records Committee saw a remarkable eight new species added to the British list, and three historic firsts were updated. Chris McInerny left the committee after 13 years, 11 of which were as Secretary. BOU is hugely appreciative of all that Chris has done and it was my pleasure to thank him at the end of the Birds and net zero conference. Finally, I would like to draw attention to the new summer placement scheme to support undergraduate students, developed by the Engagement Committee. Nominations for funding are encouraged from those who belong to groups that are underrepresented in ornithology.

Address

PO Box 79, Pembroke SA72 9AX, UK Tel: [phone] Email: [e-mail] Web: bou.org.uk

As at 31 December 2024

BOU Staff

Chief Operations Officer Dr Leila K. Walker

Journal & Office Manager Mrs Angela F. Langford

Council Officers

President Dr Graeme Buchanan Vice Presidents Prof Emma Cunningham Dr Richard Bradbury Honorary Secretary Dr Mark Eaton Honorary Treasurer Mr Graham F. Appleton

Ordinary Members of Council

Dr Tom Bradfer-Lawrence (Chair, Grants Committee), Dr Mark Eddowes, Dr Tom Finch (Chair, Engagement Committee), Dr Cat Horswill, Dr Rosemarie Kentie (Chair, IBIS Management Committee), Dr Alex Lees (Chair, Records Committee), Ms Ros Green, Dr Catriona Morrison (Chair, Meetings Committee) and Dr Stuart Sharp.

I hope you find the rest of this annual report interesting. I would like to end by giving my own thanks to all those who left roles in 2024 or are leaving roles on BOU committees at the AGM, including Richard Bradbury whose term ends as Vice President, Graham Appleton, Lucy Wright, Tom Finch, Rosemarie Kentie, and Sonya Clegg.

Structure, Governance & Management

The British Ornithologists’ Union is an unincorporated charity, no. 249877 (England & Wales) and SC044850 (Scotland).

The object of the BOU is the promotion of the science of ornithology. Its governing document is the Rules adopted at the Annual General Meeting in 2010, and last updated by Council in July 2020. Under the rules, the governing body, the Council of the Union, is responsible for the running of the Union’s business, supported by its staff. Council may delegate functions to standing or ad hoc committees that report to Council. The Union’s Council retains overall responsibility for matters so delegated.

The BOU has six standing committees: the Awards Nominations Committee, the Engagement Committee, the Grants Committee, the IBIS Management Committee, the Meetings Committee and the Records Committee.

Elected members of Council are Trustees of the charity. Members of Council are recruited from within the ornithological community. Where possible, Council members will have served on one or more of the BOU’s standing committees prior to nomination for election to Council. Those standing for election to BOU Council as an incoming chair of a standing committee will have served for at least two years on the respective committee. On election, new Council members are provided with relevant Union documents to help familiarise them with current Union activities and to provide information on the duties and responsibilities of being a Trustee of the Union.

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Council continually reviews the risks to which the Union is exposed and is satisfied that, as far as is practicable, it has taken appropriate steps to mitigate any risk.

ADMINISTRATION DETAILS

CONT/.

Trustees

The following individuals served as Trustees of the charity at the time of Council approving this annual report and accounts: Mr Graham F. Appleton, Dr Richard Bradbury, Dr Tom Bradfer-Lawrence, Dr Graeme Buchanan, Prof Emma Cunningham, Dr Mark Eaton, Dr Mark Eddowes, Dr Tom Finch, Ms Ros Green, Dr Cat Horswill, Dr Rosemarie Kentie, Dr Alex Lees, Dr Catriona Morrison and Dr Stuart Sharp.

The following individuals also served as Trustees of the charity for part of the year covered by this annual report and accounts: Dr Sonya Clegg, Dr Julie Miller and Dr Lucy Wright.

Editorial positions

At 31 December 2024 the following editorial positions were held:

IBIS Editor in Chief Prof Jennifer Gill IBIS Editors Dr Rauri Bowie Dr Richard Fuller Prof Rebecca Kimball Dr Ruedi Nager Prof Jeremy Wilson

Blog Editor Mr Charlie Russell

Investment Trustees

The following individuals served as Investment Trustees for the Union during the period of this report and accounts: Mr Nigel J. Crocker, Mr Richard Price and Mr Stephen J. Rumsey (outgoing Trustees); Mr Neil J. Bucknell, Mr Andrew D. Callender and Mr Ben J.N. Turner (incoming Trustees).

The Union employs two full-time staff who work from their respective home offices. Staff salaries are reviewed annually, as part of our staff appraisal process, conducted by the President and Honorary Secretary. Pay is normally adjusted in line with inflation (CPIH) and there is an option to award an unconsolidated performancebased bonus, in exceptional circumstances.

Objectives & Activities

Mission statement

The British Ornithologists’ Union will promote ornithological science across the international scientific community, support the individuals who contribute to that science, and grow understanding of that science among a wider community. The BOU mission will be achieved by the following means:

• Publishing IBIS as a leading international journal of ornithological science.

• Organising a programme of meetings and conferences.

• Awarding grants and bursaries for ornithological research.

• Encouraging liaison between those actively engaged in ornithological research.

• Providing a representative body of the scientific community, able to provide ornithological information and advice to government and other policy makers.

• Maintaining and publishing the official list of birds recorded in Britain– The British List.

Council activities

At our AGM in April, held during BOU2024 at the University of Nottingham, Dr Tom Bradfer-Lawrence was elected as Chair of Grants Committee to replace Dr Sonya Clegg and Ms Ros Green was elected as an Ordinary member of Council (Early Career Researcher representative) to replace Dr Julie Miller.

We were delighted that Amanda D. Rodewald (Cornell University, USA) accepted our invitation to deliver the 11th Alfred Newton Lecture at BOU2024 (page 6). We were equally delighted to award the 2024 Godman Salvin Prize to P. Dee Boersma (University of Washington, USA), who accepted the Prize at the Pacific Seabird Group meeting in Seattle (page 6), to award the 2024 Janet Kear Union Medal to Helen Baker (JNCC), who accepted the medal at BOU2024 (page 7), and to award the 2024 Early Professional Award to Wouter M.G. Vansteelant (University of Groningen, Netherlands), who accepted the award at the International Wader Study Group conference in Montpellier (page 7).

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ADMINISTRATION DETAILS

Elected members of Council, as Trustees of the charity, confirm that they have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit when reviewing objectives and activities.

CONT/.

Activities in Scotland

Bankers

The Union holds accounts with the following banks:

CAF Bank Ltd 25 Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent ME19 4JQ

The BOU is an unincorporated charity registered in Scotland (SC044850). As well as having members in Scotland, at the time of this report, six of our Trustees, Mr Graham F. Appleton, Dr Tom Bradfer-Lawrence, Dr Graeme Buchanan, Prof Emma Cunningham, Dr Tom Finch, and Dr Catriona Morrison and three of our journal editors, Prof Jennifer Gill, Dr Rudolf Nager and Prof Jeremy Wilson, also resided there.

Natwest Bank plc PO Box 6037, Brompton Road, London SW13 1XJ

Solicitor

The Union’s solicitors are: Laytons Ranger House, Walnut Tree Close, Guildford, Surrey GU1 4UL

Accountant & Auditor

The Union’s accountant and auditor are: Azets Audit Services Westpoint, Lynch Wood, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, PE2 6FZ

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ALFRED NEWTON LECTURE

Amanda D. Rodewald delivered the 11th Alfred Newton Lecture at BOU2024 in Nottingham in April.

Amanda’s Alfred Newton Lecture, entitled A bird’s eye view of behavioural and demographic processes that shape avian communities in an urbanizing world, demonstrated the capacity for human inputs to fundamentally alter species interactions.

Achievements & Performance

Reports on our activities from the BOU Office and Standing Committees

The BOU Office

Staff

During the year, the BOU employed two home-based staff members within the BOU Office: Angela Langford (Journal & Office Manager) and Leila Walker (Chief Operations Officer).

Office duties

The BOU Office is responsible for the effective running of the BOU, managed by the Chief Operations Officer and overseen by Council and the Union’s standing committees.

The BOU Office’s key responsibilities are:

• to undertake the day to day running of the BOU;

• to support BOU Council and its committees, implementing much of the work arising from them, specifically;

GODMAN SALVIN PRIZE

P. Dee Boersma (centre) received the BOU Godman Salvin Prize at the 51st Annual Meeting of the Pacific Seabird Group in Seattle, USA in February (L–R Rachel Sprague, P. Dee Boersma and Julia Parrish).

For the full citation see IBIS 166: 754-755 doi: 10.1111/ibi.13312

• working with the IBIS Management Committee, manage non-editorial, business and marketing of the Union’s journal, IBIS;

• working with the Meetings Committee, organise BOU conferences and meetings;

• working with the Engagement Committee, develop and deliver engagement initiatives including equality and diversity items;

• working with Meetings and Engagement Committees, manage the Union’s Conference Attendance Grants;

• working with the Grants Committee, manage the Union’s Small Grants and Career Development Bursary schemes, the John & Pat Warham Studentships and the Brenda & Tony Gibbs Awards;

• working with the Records Committee, manage the British List and associated areas;

• working with the Awards Nominations Committee, develop and deliver changes to our nominations processes and awards criteria, and select nominations to put forward to Council;

• working with the Honorary Treasurer, to maintain accounts and budgets and the preparation of annual accounts and annual forecasts;

• working with the IBIS Editorial Team, to oversee and manage the manuscript process and flow for IBIS, and to oversee marketing of the journal;

• to oversee the business and contractual sides of IBIS;

• to service the BOU membership;

• to develop and manage the BOU’s web content;

• to develop and manage the BOU’s social media activity;

• to undertake routine administration;

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• to manage the BOU storage facility;

• to handle general enquiries, press and publicity.

JANET KEAR UNION MEDAL

Helen Baker (left) received the BOU Janet Kear Union Medal from Graeme Buchanan (BOU President) at BOU2024, for services to the Union, to ornithology and our wider community.

For the full citation see IBIS 166: 1114-1115 doi: 10.1111/ibi.13324

EARLY PROFESSIONAL AWARD

Wouter M.G. Vansteelant (left) received the BOU Early Professional Award from José Alves (past BOU Meetings Committee member) at the 2024 IWSG conference in Montpellier, France.

For the full citation see IBIS 167: 310-311 doi: 10.1111/ibi.13358

In addition to working with the Union’s various committees (see individual committee reports below) the BOU Office undertook the activities outlined below.

Website

BOU.ORG.UK

In 2024, the BOU website received 167,046 page views, representing 80,948 users. Table 1 details the number of page views received by key areas of the website, mapping closely onto core BOU activities.

Table 1: Most-viewed areas of the BOU website by number of page views (2024).

	1.	#theBOUblog*	57,718	5. Home page	11,565
		/blog/		/bou.org.uk/
	2.	The British List	24,685	6. Funding	10,569
		/the-british-list/		/funding/
	3.	Conferences & meetings†	19,756	7. About the BOU	5,971
		/conferences-and-meetings/		/about-the-bou/
	4.	IBIS	12,100	8. Member login	2,560
		/ibis/		/login/

• Includes individual blogs;[†] Includes individual event pages; Data from Google Analytics.

The majority of users arrived to the website via organic search (52%), with remaining users arriving direct-to-site (37%), via Social Media (6%) or by referrals from other websites (5%). The top-10 countries from where users arrive to the website are listed in Table 2, with 74% of website users based outside the UK (62% in 2023).

Table 2: Top-10 countries from where users arrive to the BOU website (2024). Percentage in 2023 indicated in brackets.

	1.	United Kingdom	26% (38%)	6.	Hong Kong	3% (0.25%)
	2.	United States	21% (18%)	7.	Australia	3% (2%)
	3.	Germany	12% (5%)	8.	Spain	1% (2%)
	4.	India	4% (3%)	9.	Brazil	1% (1%)
	5.	Canada	3% (2%)	10.	France	1% (1%)

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OUR SOCIAL YEAR

@IBISJOURNAL.BSKY.SOCIAL

Social media

Marked changes on social media have continued apace in 2024, with many X users closing, or ceasing to be active on, their accounts. This is reflected in the BOU X account seeing, for the first time, a net decrease in followers over the year (see side panel). Impressions and engagements were also significantly reduced.

Audience at 31 Dec 24	3,672	+903%
Posts	1,325	+657%
@IBIS_JOURNAL
Audience at 31 Dec 24	22,234	-0.5%
Posts	4,497	+31%
Impressions Engagements	2.6m 28,899	-30% -58%
IBISJOURNAL
Audience at 31 Dec 24	14,263	+4%
Posts	2,241	-22%
Impressions	717,000	-62%
Engagements	33,482	-62%
IBIS_JOURNAL
Audience at 31 Dec 24	2,143	+21%
Posts	172	+19%
Impressions	33,023	+11%
Engagements	1,536	+144%

Many academic users have been moving over to Bluesky, and since opening our account on the platform in October 2023, we have been steadily increasing our output, and following, there. This was aided, in 2024, with our transition to Fedica as our social media scheduling and analysis platform, allowing us to schedule Bluesky posts on the latest ornithology research (via the #ornithology feed).

In the past, X (as Twitter) has been very successful at delivering our parallel conference format, alongside both in-person and online conferences. Changes in the way X operates, combined with decreased enthusiasm for the platform, have implications for the success of this format. Following the successful trial delivery of Bluesky presentations at BOU2024, BOUasm24 and BOUsci24, we therefore decided, in late 2024, to switch to Bluesky as our parallel conference platform. For the time being, delivery of #ornithology content continues on X, but this will continue to be closely monitored and reviewed.

Social media is a significant contributor to the online attention that IBIS articles receive, as measured by the Altmetric Attention Score. IBIS continues to come out on top, when compared to other ornithology journals, although mentions are notably down on 2023 for all attention sources (Table 3), a trend shared by other ornithology journals. Encouragingly, Bluesky is now included in Altmetric as an attention source, justifying efforts to promote IBIS articles on this platform.

Table 3: Online mentions for IBIS and competitor ornithology journals (in 2024)

Posts Impressions	172 33023	+19% +11%
	,			# outputs	Mentions
Engagements	1,536	+144%			Total	News	Blog	X	Facebook	Wiki	Bsky
Percentage change on 2023.			IBIS	729	4,478	404	112	2,416	342	509	661
			change 2023 v 2024	-1%	-88%	-42%	-75%	-92%	-81%	-66%	NA
			Ornithology	631	1,931	183	40	686	57	836	122
			change 2023 v 2024	-9%	-74%	-50%	-79%	-83%	-67%	-67%	NA
			J Ornithology	325	1,618	109	11	1,057	128	230	78
			change 2023 v 2024	+5%	-66%	-64%	-89%	-69%	-39%	-65%	NA
			J Avian Biology	202	1,281	67	31	692	141	123	131
			change 2023 v 2024	+4%	-79%	-79%	-56%	-85%	-59%	-74%	NA
			Orn Applications	412	1,230	209	36	470	60	347	84
			change 2023 v 2024	+10%	-77%	-81%	-76%	-84%	-58%	-69%	NA

Data from Altmetric Explorer (almertic.com/explorer) downloaded 21 January 2025.

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#theBOUblog

#THEBOUBLOG

BOU.ORG.UK/BLOG/

Our blog continues to be the most-read section of our website, accounting for 35% of all page views in 2024 (57,718 views, including views of individual blog posts). During the year we published 77 blog posts (111 in 2023) - see the side panel for the most read blog posts published in 2024.

E-newsletters

BOU.ORG.UK/E-NEWSLETTERS /

Our most-read blog posts published in 2024:

Black-eyed Birds

A new way to monitor impact of avian influenza in Gannets?

Jude Lane RSPB, UK

https://bou.org.uk/blog-lane-gannet-avian-influenza/

Travel wide, breed hard and die young Intercontinental movements of nomadic Short-eared Owls ( Asio flammeus )

John Calladine BTO, UK

https://bou.org.uk/blog-calladine-short-eared-owls/

We published 30 e-newsletters during the year, covering IBIS content (13), conference announcements (8), funding opportunities (4), latest news (4) and a contribution from Leica, sponsor of our best IBIS ECR paper award.

Sponsorship

We are very grateful to Leica Camera (UK) who continued their support by providing a pair of binoculars as the prize for the best paper in IBIS by an Early Career Researcher (ECR) as lead author. See page 12 for the recipient of the Best IBIS ECR Paper 2023 (voted for and awarded in 2024).

General administrative items

We continue to maintain a storage facility in Peterborough.

Bluesky

The real alternative to Twitter?

Steve Dudley Westray, UK - - https://bou.org.uk/blog dudley bluesky/

Are Big Birding Events Making an Impact? Significance of big birding events in crowdsourcing vital birding data in Kerala

Syamili Manoj University of Eastern Finland https://bou.org.uk/blog-manoj-birding-events/

Recent surveys deliver mixed news for

India’s vultures

Populations of Critically Endangered species remain stable but no evidence of recovery

John Mallord RSPB, UK https://bou.org.uk/blog-mallord-indian-vultures/

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 10

Awards Nominations Committee

BOU.ORG.UK/MEDALS-AND-AWARDS/

AWARDS NOMINATIONS COMMITTEE

Chair

Dr Lucy Wright (RSPB) (to April 2024) Vacant (from April 2024)

Members

Dr Marta Acácio (Tel Aviv University)

Dr Adham Ashton-Butt (BTO)

Dr Martin Beal (Lisbon University) (from July 2024)

Dr Annette Fayet (Norwegian Institute for

Nature Research)

Dr Natasha Gillies (University of Liverpool) (from July 2024)

Dr Robert Hawkes (RSPB)

Dr Grant Humphries (to July 2024)

The Awards Nominations Committee was set up in 2020 to oversee the criteria and nominations process for each of the BOU’s awards: the Godman Salvin Prize, the Janet Kear Union Medal, the Alfred Newton Lecture, and, as of 2023, the Early Professional Award. One meeting was held during 2024 with further business conducted by email.

In April, Lucy Wright stepped down as Chair, and we extend a warm thanks to Lucy for her work establishing the Committee and setting up the Early Professional Award. A successor was sought to be co-opted into the Chair role, but none being found, the position remained vacant for the remainder of the year. Council’s nominee for Chair of Awards Nominations Committee will be put forward for election at the 2025 AGM. The Committee’s membership further changed during the year, with the terms of three members, Grant Humphries, Rebecca Laidlaw and Alice Trevail, coming to an end. We thank Grant, Becky and Alice for their valuable contributions. Three new members, Martin Beal, Natasha Gillies and Martyna Syposz, were appointed to the Committee at the July Council meeting.

The 2024 recipients of the Godman Salvin Prize, Janet Kear Union Medal, Alfred Newton Lecture and the inaugural Early Professional Award, were announced during the course of the year (see side panels on pages 6 and 7).

Dr Rebecca Laidlaw (Natural Resources

Wales) (to July 2024)

Dr Kate Rogerson (Natural England) Dr Martyna Syposz (from July 2024)

Dr Alice Trevail (University of Exeter) (to July 2024)

Dr Leila Walker, BOU COO

Open calls for nominations were run, from July to September, for the Godman Salvin Prize, the Janet Kear Union Medal and the Early Professional Award. Three people were nominated for the 2025 Early Professional Award. No new nominations were received for the 2025 Godman Salvin Prize, but the nominators of the 2nd and 3rd ranked nominees from the previous year agreed to have their nominees rolled forward. No nominations were received for the 2025 Janet Kear Union Medal, and with no nominees to consider from the previous year, the medal will not be awarded in 2025. For the Godman Salvin Prize and the Early Professional Award, nominations were independently ranked following previously agreed procedures. The top ranked nominees for each award were presented to Council, for approval, at their November meeting, and the top-ranked nominee for each award has accepted their invitation. The recipients of the 2025 Godman Salvin Prize and the 2025 Early Professional Award will be announced during the course of 2025. No call for nominations was run for the 2026 Alfred Newton Lecture during 2024, as planned, due to delays in forming the Scientific Programme Committee for BOU2026.

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Engagement Committee

ENGAGEMENT COMMITTEE

Chair

Dr Tom Finch (RSPB)

Members

The Engagement Committee oversees engagement between different parts of the BOU, our members and the wider ornithological community, primarily through conferences and social media activities. The Committee’s role is to increase awareness of the BOU's activities, facilitate communication and collaboration within the community, and champion equity, diversity and inclusion.

Dr Ailidh Barnes (BTO) (to July 2024)

Mr Ondřej Belfín, Conference Support Officer (Czechia)

Dr Aonghais Cook (BTO)

Dr Jamie Dunning (University of Leeds) (from July 2024)

Dr Daniel Hayhow (Earthwatch Europe) (to July 2024)

Dr Danielle Hinchcliffe (Liverpool John Moores

University) (from July 2024)

Dr Katharine Keogan (HiDef Ariel Surveys) Dr Nicola Largey (University of Highlands and

Islands)

The Committee met three times in 2024, saying goodbye to four valued members (Ailidh Barnes, Daniel Hayhow, Julie Miller and Saskia Wischnewski), and welcoming four new members (Jamie Dunning, Danielle Hinchcliffe, Ashleigh Marshall and Karolina Zalewska), in July.

Membership

Following the revamping of the Member Conference Attendance Grants last year (with a renewed focus on funding low-carbon travel and remote attendance), this year we have made some further tweaks to the scheme to encourage more applicants and to support a wider range of events. From 2025 we will hold two annual calls for applications to support events taking place year-round. We will also support attendance at BOU events. As in 2024, applicants are encouraged to use low-carbon travel to in-person events, where possible.

Dr Ashleigh Marshall, Journal Support Officer

(Royal Society) (from July 2024)

Dr Veronica Mendez (University of Iceland) Dr Julie Miller (University of Glasgow) (to July

2024)

Dr Connor Panter, Blog Editor (University of Nottingham)

In an effort to reach prospective new members, we have produced a series of posters (with thanks to Natalia Zielonka) to distribute around ornithological institutions across the UK and beyond. These posters include a trackable QR code which links through to the BOU website, so we will be to be able to monitor the extent to which posters are being interacted with. Do keep a look out for BOU posters in your place of work or study, and get in touch with us if you could ‘host’ a poster for us.

Mr Charlie Russell, Blog Editor (University of

East Anglia)

Dr Ashley Sendell-Price (Uppsala University, Sweden)

Dr Elwyn Sharps (Natural Resources Wales) Dr Leila Walker, BOU COO

Dr Saskia Wischnewski (RSPB) (to July 2024) Ms Karolina Zalewska (University of East

Anglia) (from July 2024)

Dr Natalia Zielonka, Social Media Support Officer (University of East Anglia)

Social media

Through 2024, the committee has continued to discuss how to make best use of the various social media platforms on offer to us. From a functional perspective, X is deteriorating – posts can no longer be viewed without a user account, and ‘the algorithm’ penalises posts containing links to external webpages (such as journal articles or blog posts). Our following on X has remained largely unchanged since this time last year (22k), though engagement is down.

In contrast, we have a growing following on Bluesky (currently 3.5k at the end of 2024), where we curate the ornithology feed and have published a ‘starter pack’ of ornithologists. Bluesky posts can now be viewed without a user account, and the content of feeds can be finely tuned, effectively giving users control of the algorithm. We tested Bluesky as a parallel conference platform at our 2024 conferences (BOU2024, BOUasm24 and BOUsci24), with the BOU account posting presentation summaries from presenters who provided content. This testing, alongside increasing take-up of Bluesky, informed our recent decision to cease using X for our parallel

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TOP ALTMETRIC PAPERS

IBIS papers published in 2024

Global extinction of Slender-billed Curlew ( Numenius tenuirostris ) Graeme M. Buchanan, Ben Chapple, Alex J. Berryman, Nicola Crockford, Justin J. F. J. Jansen, Alexander L. Bond DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13368

A new species of nightjar ( Caprimulgus ) from Timor and Wetar, Lesser Sunda Islands, Wallacea Ben F. King, George Sangster, Colin R. Trainor, Martin Irestedt, Dewi M. Prawiradilaga, Per G. P. Ericson DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13340

Species status and phylogenetic relationships of the enigmatic Negros Fruit Dove ( Ptilinopus arcanus ) John A. Nash, Richard C. Harrington, Kristof Zyskowski, Thomas J. Near, Richard O. Prum DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13305

Remote tracking unveils intercontinental movements of nomadic Short-eared Owls ( Asio flammeus ) with implications for resource tracking by irruptive specialist predators John Calladine, Gunnar Thor Hallgrimsson, Neil Morrison, Chris Southall, Hallgrimur Gunnarsson, Fernando Jubete, Fabrizio Sergio, François Mougeot DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13304

Eamon C. Corbett ’s paper was voted the best ECR paper published in IBIS in 2023.

The mechanistic, genetic and evolutionary consequences of bird eye colour variation Eamon C. Corbett, Robb T. Brumfield, Brant C. Faircloth / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13276

conference activities. From BOU2025, we will instead encourage conference presenters to post to Bluesky. BOU’s regular posting on X will remain unchanged but under continued review.

Summer Placement Scheme

In 2024 the Committee developed a new scheme to provide financial support to undergraduate students undertaking summer research projects. The Summer Placement Scheme opened in January 2025, and will support three students to undertake projects of up to eight weeks in length. Applicants must be supported by a host organisation which will provide supervision and access to lab space, field sites, consumables and equipment, as necessary for the proposed project. We are particularly seeking applications from individuals belonging to groups that are currently under-represented within ornithology, and from applicants for whom a summer placement would otherwise be unaffordable. We hope that, by nurturing the next generation of ornithologists, the scheme will help secure the BOU’s future.

Equality and Diversity

Two Engagement Committee members have joined the BOU’s Equality and Diversity Working Group (EDWG) – welcome and thanks to Danielle Hinchcliffe and Elwyn Sharps. This year we have clarified the terms of the EDWG within the Engagement Committee’s Standing Orders, and the group’s work will be supported by a new Equality & Diversity Support Officer role which we are currently recruiting.

Support Officers

The BOU’s Support Officers drive a large part of our work around conference delivery, journal publicity, social media activities and the BOU blog.

Our Blog Editor, Charlie Russell, is responsible for sourcing, editing and publishing content for #theBOUblog. This year saw 77 new posts, including articles written by our Journal Support Officer (see below), authors of IBIS papers, and other community articles (including our #DiversityBlog series and, for example, an introduction to Bluesky by former BOU Chief Operations Officer Steve Dudley). We are also delighted to have Bob Montgomerie, an Emeritus Professor from Queen’s University, Canada, as a regular contributor to the blog, covering the historical background of recently published IBIS papers.

Our new Journal Support Officer, Ashleigh Marshall, wrote an impressive 20 articles for the BOU blog in 2024, summarising a variety of papers published in our journal IBIS. She cover topics ranging from Lesser Kestrel conservation to Ancient Murrelet foraging and American Black Swift mating strategies.

Our Conference Support Officer, Ondřej Belfín, supported the delivery of our annual conference and two successful autumn events, including extensive revision of conference guidelines and resources to support presenters and attendees.

Finally, our Social Media Support, Natalia Zielonka, continues to support BOU’s social media activities in a variety of ways, for example by helping to update our

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 13

social media policy, developing training materials to support the transition from X to Bluesky for our parallel conference delivery, designing new image templates for social media, and identifying a dashboard from which to manage posting across multiple platforms.

Many thanks to all of our Support Officers for their outsized contributions to the work of the BOU.

IBIS Management Committee

BOU.ORG.UK/IBIS/

Committee membership and business

IBIS MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

Chair

Dr Rosemarie Kentie (IBED, University of Amsterdam)

Members

Mr Graham Appleton, BOU Hon. Treasurer Dr Beatriz Arroyo Lopez (Instituto de

Investigacion en Recursos Cinegeticos (IREC) (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM)

Dr Rauri Bowie, Editor (University of California

– Berkeley)

Dr Simon Butler (University of East Anglia) Dr Richard Fuller, Editor (University of

Queensland)

Prof Jenny Gill, Editor in Chief (University of East Anglia)

Dr Rebecca Kimball, Editor (University of

Florida)

Mrs Angela Langford, Journal Manager Dr Ruedi Nager, Editor (University of Glasgow) Dr Andrea Soriano Redondo (University of

Helsinki) (from July 2024) Dr Leila Walker, BOU COO Prof Jeremy Wilson, Editor (RSPB)

IBIS Management Committee offers strategic guidance, support, and advice to editors and staff, particularly regarding the management of the journal and with our publisher, Wiley. The Committee consists of the Editor in Chief, all Editors, the Chief Operations Officer, the Honorary Treasurer, the Journal Manager and up to four regular members operating at Associate Editor level for IBIS or similar journals.

IBIS is published on behalf of the BOU by Wiley Publishing, from whom we continue to receive fantastic service, support and advice. During 2024, we worked closely with Andreas Petersen, our society contact in the Partner Publishing Team, and both Genevieve Richards (until September) and Melissa Clasper (from October), our editorial contacts in the Publishing Development Team. The efforts of Wiley staff during the year were greatly appreciated, and we are enjoying working closely with all the Wiley team. Within Wiley, several specialized teams (such as Journal Marketing) are available to provide guidance in the forever-changing publishing landscape. We have an excellent relationship with Wiley and maintain constant communication throughout the year, with both parties striving to improve IBIS, to ensure the journal remains at the forefront of ornithology.

Our annual meeting with Wiley was held on Zoom in March. At the meeting, annual reports covering editorial, production, marketing and finance were presented and discussed. Our close working relationship comes to the fore during these meetings, with both sides able to talk openly about our joint management of the journal.

Editorial team

The journal is managed by our Editor in Chief. Jennifer Gill, five Editors, Journal Manager Angela Langford, and our globally representative Associate Editor Board. All play a vital role in the management of IBIS and we thank each and every one of them for their time and dedication to the journal. Three Associate Editors retired from the board after many years and handling many manuscripts, and we want to thank them for their excellent work: Melanie Kershaw, James Pierce-Higgins and Gary Voelker. We currently have 48 Associate Editors. In the coming year, we plan to recruit Associate Editors by advertising positions in certain areas. Look out for developments on this in 2025 and associated calls in our e-newsletters and on social media!

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 14

TOP CITED PAPERS

From most recent Impact Factor period (20222023)

High pathogenicity avian influenza (H5N1) in Northern Gannets ( Morus bassanus ): Global spread, clinical signs and demographic consequences / Jude V. Lane et al / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13275

BirdNET: applications, performance, pitfalls and future opportunities / Cristian PérezGranados / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13193

Thermal effects of plumage coloration / Svana Rogalla, Matthew D. Shawkey, Liliana D'Alba / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13100

Special issues

Two special issues, inspired by recent BOU conferences, were published in the last year. The special issue Avian Reproduction was published in 2024 (Volume 166, Issue 2), with 13 articles spanning from breeding strategies to nest site selection and egg morphology. Another special issue, Citizen Science, was prepared for publication early in 2025 (Volume 167, Issue 1), with seven articles on topics ranging from species distributions to methodology. IBIS is also participating in a multi-journal themed collection Waking up on Climate Change: Measuring Impact, Focusing Efforts and Building Futures, which closed for submissions at the end of February 2025.

Journal metrics

The Wiley IBIS website displays a range of journal and article metrics, including the latest Journal Impact Factor (1.8 in 2023), CiteScore (4.6 in 2023), Journal Citation Indicator (1.45 in 2023), full text views (350,876 in 2023), acceptance rate (34% in 2023), submission to first decision (13 days in 2023) and submission to acceptance (283 days in 2023).

Best ECR paper

MOST DOWNLOADED IBIS PAPERS

Papers published in 2024

Global extinction of Slender-billed Curlew ( Numenius tenuirostris ) / Graeme M. Buchanan, Ben Chapple, Alex J. Berryman, Nicola Crockford, Justin J. F. J. Jansen, Alexander L. Bond / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13368

Migration mortality in birds / Ian Newton / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13316

Estimating sampling biases in citizen science datasets / Louis J. Backstrom, Corey T. Callaghan, Hannah Worthington, Richard A. Fuller, Alison Johnston / DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13343

We annually award a best IBIS Early Career Researcher (ECR) paper, where the first or corresponding author was an ECR. In 2023, 54 papers qualified, of which seven were nominated for the award by our Associate Editors. These nominated papers went to a public vote in 2024, with Eamon Corbett’s paper on the mechanistic, genetic and evolutionary causes of bird eye colour variation being voted the winner (see side panel on page 12 and https://bou.org.uk/ibis/ibis-best-ecr-paper-of2023/).

Marketing

IBIS is actively promoted through e-newsletters, social media and BOU blogs, which helps to maximise article views and online attention, as measured by Altmetric Attention Scores.

Throughout 2024, we worked closely with Jo Wood, our Product Marketing Manager at Wiley, who has created promotional banners for the Wiley IBIS website, helped us to update our journal messaging, and involved IBIS in several Wiley marketing campaigns.

Online-only journal

In 2024, IBIS became an online-only journal. The benefits associated with this include a reduced carbon footprint, a more sustainable journal and content that is more readily available to readers around the world. A very limited number of print copies continue to be made available to existing BOU member print subscribers, in agreement with Wiley, with printing and distribution provided by Henry Ling Ltd.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 15

MEETINGS COMMITTEE

Chair

Dr Cat Morrison (University of East Anglia)

Members

Dr Katherine Booth Jones (Scottish

Meetings Committee

BOU.ORG.UK/CONFERENCES-AND-MEETINGS/

The Meetings Committee is responsible for maintaining the ongoing programme of BOU conferences and providing advice and support to the BOU Office and others responsible for organising and running BOU events. The Committee met remotely via zoom twice during the year and also conducted business by email.

Ana Payo-Payo left the Committee this year and we would like to thank Ana for her great work. Vojtěch Brlík and Daria Dadam joined and we welcome and look forward to working with them.

Government)

Dr Vojtěch Brlík (Czech Academy of Sciences & Charles University, Czechia) (from July 2024)

Dr Daria Dadam (Natural England) (from July 2024)

Dr Christine Howard (Durham University)

Dr Joelene Hughes (RSPB)

Mrs Angela Langford, Journal & Office

Manager

Dr Barry McMahon (University College Dublin) Dr Ana Payo-Payo (University of Aberdeen) (to

July 2024)

Dr Alice Risely (Salford University)

Dr Emily Simmonds (Norwegian University of Science and Technology & University of Edinburgh)

Dr Leila Walker, BOU COO Dr Kevin Wood (Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust)

The Committee would like to thank our 2024 conference delivery team of Ondřej Belfín, Sarah Binnie, Valentin Kiss, Angela Langford and Natalia Zielonka for all their hard work.

2024 annual conference

Urban birds (#BOU2024) - 9-11 April 2024

The conference was held in Nottingham and focused on urban birds, aimed at discussing the unique issues faced by urban dwelling bird populations in our changing world. We had 80 in attendance of which 22 were ECRs, which made for a friendly environment with great networking opportunities. The conference sessions spanned physiology and behaviour, gut microbiomes in urban birds, morphology and colouration and behaviour and community responses.

Amanda Rodewald (Cornell University, USA) delivered the Alfred Newton Lecture, titled A bird’s eye view of behavioural and demographic processes that shape avian communities in an urbanising environment.

The keynote presenters were Fran Bonier (Queens University, Canada), Pablo Capilla-Lasheras (University of Glasgow, UK), Lucas M. Leveau (CONIETUniversity of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Ian Macgregor-Fors (University of Helsinki, Finland), Dan Chamberlain (University of Turin, Italy), Hugh Hanmer (BTO, UK) and Barbara Tomotani (Arctic University of Norway, Norway). We thank the Scientific Programme Committee (SPC) - Christine Howard (Chair, Durham University), Davide Dominoni (University of Glasgow), Caroline Isaksson (Lund University) and Kate Plummer (BTO) - for putting together an excellent programme.

Two Early Career Researcher (ECR) events also took place at the conference. The first was a series of workshops on Tricks of the trade: some thoughts on maximising the impact of your research, Media skills for ornithologists and Fundamentals of radio tracking, led by Arjun Amar (FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, South Africa), Natalia Zielonka (RSPB, UK) and Sarah Deans (Lotek UK). Thanks to all. We also had a roundtable event where ECRs got to grill the keynote speakers on

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 16

subjects ranging from careers tips to their favourite fieldwork experiences, over a drink or two served by our President Graeme Buchanan.

2024 ANNUAL CONFERENCE

2024 autumn conferences

Birds and net zero (#BOUasm24) - 24 October 2024

This one-day conference was held in York and run as our first hybrid event (inperson and on Zoom). We had 62 attending in person and 88 online. The conference sessions spanned unlocking new evidence, novel approaches to meeting evidence gaps, understanding population-level impacts and demographic consequences, ecosystem approaches to understanding impacts, understanding uncertainty and monitoring impacts and closing the loop.

URBAN BIRDS

9–11 Apr 2024 | Nottingham | #BOU2024 Image: Zeynel Cebeci CC BY-SA 4.0 Wikimedia Commons

2024 AUTUMN CONFERENCES

BIRDS AND NET ZERO 24 Oct 2024 | York & Zoom | #BOUasm24

Image: Susanne Nilsson CC BY-SA 2.0 Wikimedia Commons

AVIAN CONSERVATION TRANSLOCATIONS 12-13 Nov 2024 | Zoom | #BOUsci24

Image: Zeynel Cebeci CC BY-SA 4.0 Wikimedia Commons

The keynote speakers were Aonghais Cook (The Biodiversity Consultancy, UK), Catharine Horswill, (ZSL Institute of Zoology & University College London, UK), Micheal Heath (University of Strathclyde, UK), Elizabeth Masden (University of the Highlands and Islands, UK) and Martin Perrow (University College London & UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, UK). We thank the SPC - Katherine Booth Jones (Scottish Government, UK), Aly McCluskie (RSPB, UK), Kate Searle (UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology) and Chris Thaxter (BTO, UK) - for putting together an excellent programme.

Avian conservation translocations (#BOUsci24) – 12-13 November 2024

This two-day online conference aimed to share knowledge and experiences from past, ongoing and planned translocation programmes, to inform future translocation efforts. We had 158 in attendance. The conference sessions spanned monitoring of translocated populations, decision science and translocation planning, adaptive management, health and welfare considerations, ecosystem restoration and rewilding, translocation and people, behaviour impacts, conservation translocations: looking to the future.

The keynote speakers were Kevin Parker (Parker Conservation, New Zealand), Carl G. Jones (Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, UK), Sarah J Converse (University of Washington, USA), Stefano Canessa (University of Bern, Switzerland), Kate McInnes (Dept of Conservation, New Zealand), Phil Seddon (University of Otago, New Zealand), Olivier Nsengimana (Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association, Rwanda) and Alison Greggor (San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, USA).

The conference closed with a panel discussion on Conservation translocations: looking to the future, chaired by Geoff Hilton (Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, UK), with an opening presentation from Martin Gaywood (NatureScot, UK) and contributions from Sarah Dalrymple (Liverpool John Moores University, UK), Lee Schofield (Ecologist and Author), John Ewen (Zoological Society London, UK), Delphine Pouget (Natural England, UK) and Mary Davies (RSPB, UK).

We thank the SPC - Lynda Donaldson (Chair; RSPB, UK), Katie Beckmann (University of Edinburgh, UK), Victoria Franks (University of Salford, UK) and Kevin

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 17

Wood (Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, UK) - for putting together an excellent programme.

2025 CONFERENCES

FRONTIERS IN

ORNITHOLOGY

1-3 Apr 2025 | Nottingham | #BOU2025

Future conferences

We have a diverse selection of topics covered by our upcoming conference programme. These are:

2025 annual conference – Frontiers in ornithology (#BOU2025) 1-3 April 2025 – University of Nottingham, UK

This is an exciting conference, bringing together researchers, conservationists, and policy makers. working at the cutting edge of ornithological research and conservation, to share their knowledge as to how innovative technologies and novel approaches can help us find solutions to conserve birds in a changing world.

Image: Imran Shah CC BY-SA 2.0 Wikimedia Commons

A DAY AT THE MUSEUM 18 Nov 2025 | Natural History Museum, London | #BOUasm25

Image: © Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London

BOU at EOU 2025 – Pre-congress symposium on woodland birds 18 August 2025 – Bangor, UK

This symposium offers a timely opportunity to bring together members from the many active research groups working on woodland birds, with great potential to discuss emerging topics in ecology and conservation. It is likely to be of interest to a wide range of ornithologists from across Europe.

2025 autumn conference – A day at the museum (#BOUasm25) 18 November 2025 – Natural History Museum, London, UK

This conference aims to bring together researchers to explore the frontiers of collections-based ornithological research, including innovative approaches being developed to unlock the data in collections, and exciting new directions in environmental change research.

2026 annual conference – Birds and people (#BOU2026) 31 March - 2 April 2026 – University of Nottingham, UK

This conference aims to examine the complexities of the relationships between birds and people, in order to understand more about how birds and people can live together. We will provide an optimistic note for the future for birds by hearing about recent conservation successes, while learning more about current anthropogenic threats they face. We will hear about the latest science on minimising the challenges birds may pose to human interests and maximising the benefits they provide.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 18

Grants Committee

BOU.ORG.UK/FUNDING/

GRANTS COMMITTEE

Chair

Dr Sonya Clegg (University of Oxford) (until April 2024)

Dr Tom Bradfer-Lawrence (RSPB) (April 2024 onwards)

Members

Dr Davide Dominoni (University of Glasgow) Ros Green (University of Liverpool & BTO)

(role-sharing)

Dr Claudia Martin (University of Edinburgh) (from April 2024 onwards)

Dr Sam Patrick (University of Liverpool) (rolesharing)

Dr Martin Sullivan (Manchester Metropolitan University)

Dr Leila Walker, BOU COO

This Committee advises Council on the selection of research grant and bursary applications that the BOU should support.

The Committee considers applications for:

• Small Research Grants;

• Career Development Bursaries;

• open to BOU members and non-members in low- and middle-income countries.

• John & Pat Warham Studentships;

• funded by a bequest left to the BOU by the late John and Pat Warham for the study of Sphenisciform (penguins) and Procellariiform (tubenoses) seabirds.

• Brenda and Tony Gibbs Awards;

• funded by a bequest left to the BOU by the late Brenda and Tony Gibbs, for research on tracking and migration studies including the use of new technologies.

The Committee met twice via Zoom in 2024. The meeting to consider research grant and career development bursary applications was held in February, and the meeting to consider applications for the Brenda and Tony Gibbs Award was held in June. The remainder of the Committee’s business was conducted by email.

Sonya Clegg’s term as Chair of Grants Committee ended in April 2024 and Tom Bradfer-Lawrence stepped into the Chair role. We are hugely grateful to Sonya for her time on the Committee and to Tom for taking on this position. To maintain the full complement of Grants Committee members, Claudia Martin joined the Committee alongside the Chair changeover, bringing with her invaluable expertise in populations genomics and molecular ecology.

Small Ornithological Research Grant scheme

The Committee received 48 grant applications (31 in 2023, 45 in 2022, 54 in 2021). One application was rejected due to breaches in submission criteria, leaving 47 to be assessed ahead of the annual meeting held on 5 February 2024. Two qualified for funding consideration under the Brenda and Tony Gibbs bequest. Each application was scored by two committee members and based on these scores, the associated comments and on-the-day discussions, the committee determined which projects to support.

Council approved eight awards, totalling £14,839, to be made in 2024:

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 19

FUNDING ORNITHOLOGY

Two of the species featuring in research projects funded by the BOU in 2024.

From the top:

Grey Heron Ardea cinerea Alexis Lours CC BY 4.0 Wikimedia Commons

Bullock’s Oriole Icterus bullockii Kevin Cole CC BY 2.0 Wikimedia Commons

Alejandro Corregidor-Castro (Spain) | £1,166 (amount requested) * PhD Student, University of Padua, Italy

Unwanted ecological traps: the importance of nest microclimate in artificial nesting sites under forecasted climate change.

Alice J. Edney (UK) | £2,000 (amount requested) D.Phil Student, Oxford University, UK

Genomic tagging: using population genomics to determine the geographic and evolutionary origins of UK-wintering chiffchaffs.

Simon Evans (UK) | £1,850 (amount requested) * Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Exeter, UK

A continent-scale assessment of fertilisation failure rates in the Great Tit.

Sophie Harris (UK) | £1,965 (amount requested) PhD Student, Newcastle University, UK

Exploring the transportation of Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) DNA through a spatiotemporal analysis of sedimentary DNA (sedDNA) in a lake in Gloucestershire.

Stephanie Harris (UK) | £1,998.80 (amount requested) Postdoctoral Researcher, Bangor University, UK

Investigating thermal investment in incubation and life-history decisions in a long-lived seabird with long incubation stints.

Jason Lacson (USA) | £1,888.81 (amount requested) Ph.D student, Arizona State University, USA

Feather testosterone concentrations in relation to plumage colour in male and female Bullock’s Orioles (Icterus bullockii).

Andreia Malpica-Topete (Mexico) | £2,000 (amount requested) Postdoctoral Researcher, Michoacan University of Saint Nicholas of Hidalgo, Mexico

Searching for genome-environment association signals that suggest patterns of local adaptation in an endemic bird of the Tropical Dry Forest of Mexico: perspectives for conservation in the face of climate change.

Alper Yelimlie ş (Turkey) | £1,970 (amount requested)

Ph.D. candidate, Konrad Lorenz Research Centre for Behavior and Cognition, Austria

Duetting and territorial defence coordination in the Galapagos Yellow Warbler.

• Awards funded from £10,000 donation received in 2022 (small grants fund).

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 20

Brenda and Tony Gibbs small research award

Separate to the main Gibbs Award (awards up to £20,000 – see page 22) we are using the remainder of the bequest left to us by Brenda and Tony Gibbs to fund smaller awards for applications to our small grant scheme that fall within the parameters of the Gibbs bequest.

Two awards were made in 2024:

Charlie Russell (UK) | £2,000 (amount requested) PhD Student, University of East Anglia, UK

Evaluating the impact of tracking device placement and weight on high resolution flight performance metrics

Eugenia Andrea Bonetti (Argentina) | £ 1,933.39 (amount requested) PhD Student, Marine and Coastal Research Institute, Argentina Communal roosting behavior of a Neotropical raptor (Milvago chimango) at the city: identifying potential conflicts and benefits for the society and the environment

In March 2023, Council approved the Committee’s proposal that the funding amount available via the Small Ornithological Research Grant scheme be raised to a maximum of £2,000 (rather than “£1,500, or £2,000 in exceptional circumstances”). This change was to account for rising research costs, as many applications were claiming the £2000 maximum already. The total pot of money available via this scheme remains the same, but we were able to fund an extra application this year (eight rather than seven in 2023).

Career Development Bursary scheme

WARHAM STUDENT

The committee received no applications to this scheme in 2024 (2 in 2023, 6 in 2022, scheme not offered in 2020, 7 in 2019, 5 in 2018, 10 in 2017). Overall, the Committee feel that the Bursaries scheme is worthwhile but that it requires better promotion. To this end, various measures were implemented in 2024 to encourage more applications, including improved signposting, more information and previousrecipient testimonials on the BOU website.

John and Pat Warham Studentships

The first three Warham students have now completed their PhDs (see the 2023 Annual Report for their final reports). Here, John Lamaris, the fourth and final Warham Student, provides an update on how his project is going.

John Lamaris, Monash University, Australia (commenced 2023) Recovering the critically endangered Beck’s Petrel Principal supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Rohan Clarke

Our 2023 Warham Student, John Lamaris , Monash University, Australia.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 21

RECOVERING THE CRITICALLY ENDANGERED BECK’S PETREL

John (left) and Bernard Maul (Field Assistant; right) conducting on-shore observation of Beck’s Petrel in southern New Ireland (photo: Jeremy Bird).

My research programme is aimed at recovering the Critically Engendered Beck’s Petrel and will focus on locating a breeding colony and studying the species’ ecology. It is important that we locate the Beck’s Petrel nesting grounds, and assess threats to the population such that targeted conservation strategies may be developed to protect the species.

As this research is being conducted on lands that belong to indigenous communities in southern New Ireland, our efforts in the first year of research have been focused on consultation with indigenous communities that we are collaborating with, to ensure all parties have a clear understanding of the aims and objectives of the study, and the significance of protecting this rare species. In April 2024, we visited five communities (Muliama, Yasu, Mimias, Kapsipau, Taron) and two primary top-up schools (Kapsipau and Silur) along the southern New Ireland coastlines, to engage with community members, explain what our project will involve, and to seek consent to continue the research. At the conclusion of this consultation, we also commenced monthly on-shore observation and population counts of the Beck’s Petrel at Tadang river mouth (Taron village). Tadang river mouth was selected as the location for our monthly on-shore population counts after our preliminary surveys from five distinct locations detected more birds at this site when compared with others.

This fieldtrip was highly successful and met our objectives. Specifically, we received consent from the landowners to continue the research and to conduct the on-shore monthly population counts at Tadang river mouth. These monthly surveys have continued since then, and at the time of writing (December 2024), we have now completed eight months of surveys, the first long-term on-shore monitoring data documenting the seasonal occurrence of Beck’s Petrel off the coast of New Ireland.

John with a Wandering Albatross on the Research group tagging trip off the coast of SE Australia (Photo: Rohan Clarke).

In preparation for Beck’s Petrel tagging planned for the first quarter of 2025, I have been participating in our research group’s seabird monitoring and tagging program that is being delivered off the coast of SE Australia. This regular fieldwork has provided both training and experience with the at-sea identification of seabirds, alongside training and experience with the safe capture, handling, measuring, banding and fitting of biologgers to seabirds. I am learning a lot from the team, developing an understanding of the process, and building confidence in handling seabirds, which I am very thankful for. There is still a lot to learn and so I will continue with this training over the coming months.

The next key components of my research will be focused on in-land searches for a breeding colony of the enigmatic Beck’s Petrel. The intent here is that this will rely heavily on the boat-based seabird capture and tagging experience that I have been gaining so that, ultimately, I can deploy GPS tags with satellite connectivity on Beck’s Petrels captured off New Ireland. When tagged at the appropriate time of year (informed by our monthly on-shore surveys and past knowledge of Beck’s Petrel) these GPS tags will then assist with locating one or more breeding colonies.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 22

I look forward to sharing more stories on my experiences training as a seabird biologist and our efforts to locating a Beck’s Petrel breeding colony.

RECORDS COMMITTEE

Chair

Dr Alexander Lees (Manchester Metropolitan University

Brenda and Tony Gibbs bequest

We received and assessed 23 applications (33 in 2023, 20 in 2022, 37 in 2021). The combined scores and comments from Committee members were used for the basis of the on-the-day discussions at a meeting on 26 June 2024.

Council approved a single award of £19,794:

Secretary

Dr Chris McInerny (University of Glasgow) (until June 2024) Mr Chris Batty (Lancashire) (from July 2024)

Members

Mr Ross Ahmed (Northumberland) Dr Pierre-Andre Crochet (French National

Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)) Mr Paul French (East Yorkshire: BBRC Chair) (until August 2024)

Mr Mark Golley (Norfolk, UK)

Wieland Heim (Germany)

Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oldenburg, Germany

Pesticide effects on the migration and survival of Eurasian Skylarks Alauda arvensis.

Records Committee

BOU.ORG.UK/BRITISH-LIST/

The Records Committee is responsible for maintaining the British List, the official list of birds recorded in Britain.

The Committee met twice (remotely) during the year with other business conducted by email.

Mr Andrew Holden (North Yorkshire: BBRC

Vice-Chair) (from September 2024) Mr Mark Thomas (RSPB)

Dr Jane Turner (Cheshire) (From July 2024) Dr Leila Walker, BOU COO

BOURC CATEGORY F SUB-COMMITTEE (BOURC CFSC)

Dr Joanne Cooper Prof John R. Stewart Dr Dale Serjeantson

BOURC consultants

Chris McInerny retired as a member of the Committee in June 2024. Chris had served on the Committee since November 2011 and as Secretary from June 2013, and we extend our gratitude to him for all his hard work (including many BOURC publications) spanning 13 years. Chris Batty stepped into the Secretary role from July 2024 and we welcomed Jane Turner as a new member – Jane has been passionate about birding since childhood, with a long list of rarity finds, and serves as the county recorder for Cheshire and Wirral. We also said farewell to Paul French, who has served as BBRC representative on BOURC for 10 years, to be replaced by Andy Holden in one of the new BBRC Vice-Chair roles.

Changes to the British List

The BOURC’s 57th Report was published in January 2025 and covers the period October 2023 to September 2024 (IBIS 167: 312-323). This announced a number of changes to Category A of the British List, including a remarkable eight new species:

Mr Steve Dudley (Category C)

Dr Bob McGowen, National Museums of Scotland (museums) Keith Naylor (historical records) Andrew Owen, Chester Zoo (captive bird trade)

• Red-headed Bunting Emberiza bruniceps (formerly on Category D)

• Soft-plumaged Petrel Pterodroma mollis

• Band-rumped Storm-petrel Hydrobates castro (formerly accepted as the species-group Band-rumped Storm-petrel/ Monteiro’s Storm-petrel/Cape Verde Storm-petrel Hydrobates castro/monteiroi/jabejabe)

• Stejneger’s Scoter Melanitta stejnegeri

• Black-winged Kite Elanus caeruleus

• Grey-headed Lapwing Vanellus cinereus

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 23

• Canada Warbler Cardellina canadensis

ADDITIONS TO THE BRITISH LIST

Black-winged Kite Elanus caeruleus , admitted to the British List in 2024. Image © Paul Ellis, from record file

Grey-headed Lapwing Vanellus cinereus , admitted to the British List in 2024. Image © Paul Ellis, from record file

Western Olivaceous Warbler Iduna opaca , admitted to the British List in 2024. Image © Roger Riddington, from record file

• Western Olivaceous Warbler Iduna opaca

In addition, there were new historic first records for a further three species (year of occurrence in parentheses):

• Black-winged Pratincole Glareola nordmanni (1868)

• Oriental Pratincole Glareola maldivarum (1908)

• Taiga Flycatcher Ficedula albicilla (1976)

Furthermore, Golden Pheasant Chrysolophus pictus was subject to a category change from C1E to C6E as a ‘Former naturalized species – species formerly placed in C1 whose naturalized populations are either no longer self-sustaining or are considered extinct’.

In addition, the release of versions 14.1 and 14.2 of the IOC World Bird List resulted in a large number of changes to the British List, mostly involving changes in linear sequence of several bird families as detailed in the 57th Report. However, these changes also involved taxonomic upgrades and downgrades. including the addition of two new species-level taxa. First. the addition of Red Grouse Lagopus scotica which was split from Willow Ptarmigan Lagopus lagopus and becomes a new endemic species for Britain and Ireland. Second, the addition of Eastern Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis daurica which is added alongside European Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis rufula. Two species-level taxa were removed from the list as Lesser Redpoll Acanthis cabaret and Arctic Redpoll Acanthis hornemanni were lumped with Common Redpoll Acanthis flammea to form one species Redpoll Acanthis flammea.

Also included in the 57th Report (and mentioned in the 2023 BOU Annual Report), was the removal of Lesser Short-toed Lark Alaudala rufescens from Category A of the British List.

In total, these changes to the British List, together with taxonomic changes in line with IOC taxonomy (detailed in IBIS 167: 312-323) bring the total to 640 species as at 31 December 2024.

Committee recruitment

New Committee members continue to be recruited via public calls for nominations and may in future be aided by a new shadowing role which will span all BOU committees. More on this to follow in 2025.

Links with other groups

The Committee maintains close links with the British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC). The BOURC Secretary continues to work closely with BBRC’s Secretariat and other European committees, and close links are maintained with Association of European Records Committees (AERC).

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 24

Acknowledgements

The Union would like to extend its thanks and gratitude to the following who have assisted with the many BOU activities throughout the year:

All those members of Council and our committees as listed throughout the report who give up their time willingly to develop, oversee and deliver our wide range of activities;

Raurie Bowie, Richard Fuller, Jenny Gill, Rebecca Kimball, Ruedi Nager, Jeremy Wilson, Patrick Smith, all Associate Editors (listed in each issue of IBIS) and the hundreds of reviewers (listed annually in IBIS) for their invaluable work for IBIS;

Richard Sale (on behalf of the Alexander Library, Oxford University) for his editing of the IBIS book reviews;

Prof Christopher Perrins and Neil Bucknell for arranging the obituaries published in IBIS;

Graham Allen, Farhath Jabeen, Andreas Petersen, Genevieve Richards, Melissa Clasper, Janany Sudarshan, Jo Wood and colleagues at Wiley, for their help in delivering our high quality journal;

Andrew Hopwood, Adrian Morris and colleagues at Henry Ling Ltd for providing member print copies of IBIS;

Leica (UK) for their support of our IBIS early career researcher award;

Outgoing investment trustees Nigel Crocker, Richard Price and Stephen Rumsey, and incoming investment trustees Neil Bucknell, Andrew Callender and Ben Turner for their excellent management of the Union’s investment portfolio;

Christine Howard (Chair, Durham University), Davide Dominoni (University of Glasgow), Caroline Isaksson (Lund University) and Kate Plummer (BTO) for their work preparing the programme for the annual conference ( Urban birds );

Katherine Booth Jones (Scottish Government, UK), Aly McCluskie (RSPB, UK), Kate Searle (UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology) and Chris Thaxter (BTO, UK) for the planning and delivery of our Birds and net zero autumn conference;

Cont/.

Membership

At the end of the year our total membership stood at 1,082 (1,089 at 31 Dec 2023) comprising 784 full members (781 at 31 Dec 2023) and 298 reduced rate subscribers (308 at 31 Dec 2023), made up of 260 early career researchers (ECRs) and 38 from/living in low-and-middle-income countries.

46 members sent their formal resignation during the year (44 in 2023), and Council noted, with sadness, the following deaths: Mr Julian Arkell, Mr Graham Cowles, Dr Ommo Hueppop, Dr Peter Jones and Mr Peter Steyn.

As ever, we remain extremely grateful for the continued support of our members.

Financial review

Graham Appleton, Honorary Treasurer

On paper, the BOU made a loss of £28,907 during the year under review, following a loss of £3,140 in 2023. Much of the loss is associated with expenditure from legacy funds, as described below, together with planned support for grants and to develop conferences. Council is committed to

reducing assets and sets a negative budget each year. At their November meeting, Council agreed the following reserves policy:

The Union is committed to reducing the amount of cash savings we hold, in line with the expectations of the Charity Commissioners. Council has agreed that we should reduce Unrestricted Funds to £350k, in the medium term, representing one year of operations (£250k) and a buffer of £100k. The size of this reserve takes account of uncertainty over medium-term income from journal publishing, which is currently a significant part of the Union’s turnover.

At the end of 2024, Unrestricted Funds stood at £673,863, up from £642,362 at the end of 2023. The planned reduction in Unrestricted Reserves was negated by strong performance of IBIS (income declared here is £14,081 above budget) and the strong rise in the value of investments.

Wiley contract

Along with membership subscriptions, journal sales provide the bulk of the BOU’s income. IBIS is published in partnership with Wiley Publishing, an arrangement which serves the Union well. 2024 was the first year of a new four-year contract. There would appear to have been a slight drop in income, from £118,906 to £112,801, but this is associated with a change in the Wiley reporting year. In the 2023 accounts, income included a large payment received in the early part of 2024. Under the new contract, with a later Wiley year-end, the first 2025 payment will not be received in

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 25

Acknowledgements

time for these accounts. Instead, the debtor figure, included in the income for 2024, is just the balance of expected income for 2024.

CONT/.

Lynda Donaldson (Chair; RSPB, UK), Katie Beckmann (University of Edinburgh, UK), Victoria Franks (University of Salford, UK) and Kevin Wood (Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, UK) for the planning and delivery of our Avian conservation translocations autumn conference;

Ondřej Belfín, Sarah Binnie, Valentin Kiss, Angela Langford and Natalia Zielonka for supporting the delivery of our conferences;

Daniel Blanco and Charlie Douglass at Douglass Digital for maintenance and development of the BOU website;

Maria Rogers and the conference staff at the University of Nottingham Conferences for helping to deliver our annual conference;

Sarah Miller and the conference staff at Novotel York Centre for helping to deliver our autumn Birds and net zero conference;

Keith McJannett, and colleagues at Elite Event Solutions for delivering the online component of our autumn Birds and net zero conference;

Andy Musgrove for continued help with maintaining the electronic versions of the British List;

British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC) and bird records committees across Europe under the auspices of the Association of European Records Committees (AERC) who have assisted BOURC during the year;

Karen Kragesand Thomsen at Kovsted & Skovgård;

and Caroline Gillis, Tracey Richardson, Lilly Byng, Shawn McIndoe and colleagues at Azets (accountants and auditors).

We apologise to anyone we have inadvertently omitted.

Changes

During 2024, Angela Langford and Leila Walker have moved our accounting system from paper to an online system, Xero. With the help of our accountancy support team at Azets, this has gone very smoothly. An online system is particularly useful, given our decentralised administration, and the package provides tools that should make it easier to monitor expenditure during the course of a year and to make budget proposals and decisions.

Most of the income and expenditure streams for 2024 matched those for 2023 but there were a few variances. Conference income was higher in 2024, with three conferences, instead of two, but expenditure was also higher, especially because we tried a new way to deliver a hybrid conference. The lower debtor figure of £40,059 (v £55,724) may in part reflect the fact that the end of year reconciliation is skewed by the change in the Wiley year, as discussed above.

Grants

Although some of the money used to support grants comes from annual income and returns on investments, the major contribution is from reserves. Extra support is being provided by a member who has kindly donated £10,000. During 2024, his money supported two of the Small Research Grants selected by Grants Committee.

BOU Council continues to act as stewards for the legacies provided by John & Pat Warham and Brenda & Tony Gibbs. Payments for both the 2023 Gibbs Award and the 2024 Gibbs Award were made during 2024 and the fourth and final Warham studentship continues to fund work at Monash University.

Investments

The value of the BOU’s investments grew in line with market benchmarks, with dividends from unrestricted and endowment funds providing income, especially for grants. During 2024, there was a changeover of investment trustees, with Richard Price, Nigel Crocker and Stephen Rumsey handing over to Neil Bucknell, Ben Turner and Andrew Callender, who were appointed at the March Council meeting. The legal appointment took longer than expected and the retiring trustees ended up being responsible for the figures that fed into the 2024 report. I should like to thank them for their forbearance and reiterate Council’s thanks for their many years of service.

It seems sensible to take this opportunity to review the BOU’s investments, especially to assess whether there are ways to further refine ethical parameters. The new investment trustees will be bringing a report to Council early in 2025.

Looking forwards

This is my eighth and final Treasurer’s report. Finances continue to be sound and there is no suggestion that this will change in the medium term. Making longer-term

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 26

plans is complicated by the four-year renewal cycle of the publishing contract. There is scope to invest more money in ornithology during 2025 and 2026 and Council is considering how to do so effectively. This is reflected in an amended budget for 2025 that has been agreed by Council.

I should like to record my thanks to Leila Walker, Steve Dudley and Angela Langford, with whom it has been a pleasure to work, and to the team at Azets who provide such excellent support for our accounts and governance procedures. I wish my successor well and hope that he enjoys being part of the BOU Management Team as much as I have.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 27

Responsibilities of the Trustees

The Members of Council are responsible for preparing the Trustees' Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

The law applicable to charities in England and Wales and in Scotland requires the Members of Council to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources of the charity for that year.

In preparing these financial statements, the Members of Council are required to:

• select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

• observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;

• make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;

• state whether applicable accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and

• prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.

The Members of Council are responsible for keeping sufficient accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the Charity (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and the provisions of the trust deed. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Approved by Council on 12 March 2025 and signed on their behalf by:

Dr Graeme Buchanan President

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 28

Independent auditor’s report

to the members of the British Ornithologists’ Union for the year ended 31 December 2024

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of British Ornithologists' Union (the ‘ charity ’ ) for the year ended 31 December 2024 which comprise the statement of financial activities, the balance sheet and the notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

• give a true and fair view of the state of the charity ’ s affairs as at 31 December 2024 and of its incoming resources and application of resources, for the year then ended;

• have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and

• have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and regulation 8 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended).

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC ’ s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the Trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity ’ s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the Members of Council with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the financial statements and our auditor's report thereon. The Members of Council are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 29

themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) require us to report to you if, in our opinion:

• the information given in the financial statements is inconsistent in any material respect with the Trustees' report; or

• sufficient and proper accounting records have not been kept; or

• the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records; or - we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

Responsibilities of Members of Council

As explained more fully in the statement of Trustees' responsibilities, the Members of Council are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the Members of Council determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. In preparing the financial statements, the Members of Council are responsible for assessing the charity ’ s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the Members of Council either intend to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

We have been appointed as auditor under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 and section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and report in accordance with the Acts and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council ’ s website at: https:// www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 30

Extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above and on the Financial Reporting Council ’ s website, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud.

We obtain and update our understanding of the entity, its activities, its control environment, and likely future developments, including in relation to the legal and regulatory framework applicable and how the entity is complying with that framework. Based on this understanding, we identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. This includes consideration of the risk of acts by the entity that were contrary to applicable laws and regulations, including fraud.

In response to the risk of irregularities and non-compliance with laws and regulations, including fraud, we designed procedures which included:

• Enquiry of management and those charged with governance around actual and potential litigation and claims as well as actual, suspected and alleged fraud;

• Reviewing minutes of meetings of those charged with governance;

• Assessing the extent of compliance with the laws and regulations considered to have a direct material effect on the financial statements or the operations of the entity through enquiry and inspection;

• Reviewing financial statement disclosures and testing to supporting documentation to assess compliance with applicable laws a nd regulations;

• Performing audit work over the risk of management bias and override of controls, including testing of journal entries and other adjustments for appropriateness, evaluating the business rationale of significant transactions outside the normal course of business and reviewing accounting estimates for indicators of potential bias.

Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control.

Other matters

Your attention is drawn to the fact that the charity has prepared financial statements in accordance with "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)" (as amended) in preference to the Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice issued on 1 April 2005 which is referred to in the extant regulations but has now been withdrawn.

This has been done in order for the financial statements to provide a true and fair view in accordance with current Generally Accepted Accounting Practice.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charity ’ s trustees, as a body, in accordance with part 4 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 and regulation 10 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 31

the charity's trustees those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity and the charity ’ s trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Tracey Richardson BSc (Hons) FCA (Senior Statutory Auditor)

19 March 2025

for and on behalf of Azets Audit Services Chartered Accountants

Statutory Auditor

Westpoint Lynch Wood Peterborough Cambridgeshire United Kingdom PE2 6FZ

Azets Audit Services is eligible for appointment as auditor of the charity by virtue of its eligibility for appointment as auditor of a company under section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 32

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

Current financial year Notes Income from: Donations and legacies 3 Charitable activities 4 Investments 5 Total income and endowments Expenditure on: Raising funds 6 Charitable activities 7 Total expenditure Net gains/(losses) on investments 12 Net incoming/(outgoing) resources before transfers Gross transfers between funds Net movement in funds Fund balances at 1 January 2024 Fund balances at 31 December 2024	Unrestricted funds £ 37,493 147,530 26,737 211,760 55,143 142,049 197,192 10,467 25,035 6,466 31,501 642,362 673,863	Restricted funds £ – – 4,687 4,687 – 67,673 67,673 – (62,986) (6,466) (69,452) 271,191 201,739	Endowment funds £ – – 1,667 1,667 – – – 7,377 9,044 – 9,044 157,239 166,283	Total 2024 £ 37,493 147,530 33,091 218,114 55,143 209,722 264,865 17,844 (28,907) – (28,907) 1,070,792 1,041,885	Total 2023 £ 38,052 149,262 34,601
					221,915
					51,869
					169,208
					221,077
					(3,978)
					(3,140) –
					(3,140) 1,073,932
					1,070,792

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.

All income and expenditure is derived from continuing activities.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 33

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

Prior financial year (2023) Notes Income from: Donations and legacies 3 Charitable activities 4 Investments 5 Total income and endowments Expenditure on: Raising funds 6 Charitable activities 7 Total expenditure Net gains/(losses) on investments 12 Net incoming/(outgoing) resources before transfers Gross transfers between funds Net movement in funds Fund balances at 1 January 2023 Fund balances at 31 December 2023	Unrestricted funds £ 38,052 149,262 28,492 215,806 51,869 125,561 177,430 (5,903) 32,473 4,064 36,537 605,825 642,362	Restricted funds £ – – 4,453 4,453 – 43,647 43,647 – (39,194) (4,064) (43,258) 314,449 271,191	Endowment funds £ – – 1,656 1,656 – – – 1,925 3,581 – 3,581 153,658 157,239	Total 2023 £ 38,052 149,262 34,601
				221,915
				51,869
				169,208
				221,077
				(3,978)
				(3,140) –
				(3,140) 1,073,932
				1,070,792

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 34

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

BALANCE SHEET

AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2024

Fixed assets Notes Investments 14 Current assets Debtors 16 Cash at bank and in hand Creditors: amounts falling due within one year 17 Net current assets Total assets less current liabilities Capital funds Endowment funds-general General endowment funds 21 Income funds Restricted funds 20 Unrestricted funds	2024 £ 40,059 609,205 649,264 (37,212)	£ 429,833 612,052 1,041,885 166,283 201,739 673,863 1,041,885	2023 £ 55,724 648,913 704,637 (41,527)	£ 407,682 663,110
				1,070,792
				157,239 271,191 642,362
				1,070,792

The accounts were approved by the Members of Council on 12 March 2025.

Dr Graeme Buchanan President

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 35

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

1 Accounting policies

Charity information

The British Ornithologists' Union is a registered charity in England and Wales (249877) and Scotland (SC044850) and is unincorporated.

The charity is a public benefit company.

The charity's place of business is: PO Box 79, Pembroke, SA72 9AX, United Kingdom.

1.1 Accounting convention

The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the charity's trust deed, the Charities Act 2011, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)” (as amended for accounting periods commencing from 1 January 2016). The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.

The charity has taken advantage of the provisions in the SORP for charities applying FRS 102 Update Bulletin 1 not to prepare a Statement of Cash Flows.

The financial statements have departed from the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 only to the extent required to provide a true and fair view. This departure has involved following the Statement of Recommended Practice for charities applying FRS 102 rather than the version of the Statement of Recommended Practice which is referred to in the Regulations but which has since been withdrawn.

The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, modified to include the revaluation of certain financial instruments at fair value. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.

1.2 Going concern

At the time of approving the financial statements, the Members of Council have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the Members of Council continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.

1.3 Charitable funds

Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the Members of Council in furtherance of their charitable objectives unless the funds have been designated for other purposes.

Designated funds are unrestricted funds earmarked by the trustees for particular future project or commitment.

Restricted funds are subjected to restrictions on their expenditure declared by the donor or through the terms of an appeal, and fall into one of two sub-classes: restricted income funds or endowment funds.

Endowment funds are subject to specific conditions by donors that the capital must be maintained by the charity.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 36

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

1 Accounting policies (continued)

1.4 Income

• All incoming resources are included in the statement of financial activities when entitlement has passed to the charity; it is probable that the economic benefits associated with the transaction will flow to the charity and the amount can be reliably measured. The following specific policies are applied to particular categories of income:

• Income from donations or grants is recognised when there is evidence of entitlement to the gift, receipt is probable and its amount can be measured reliably.

• Legacy income is recognised when receipt is probable and entitlement is established.

• Income from donated goods is measured at the fair value of the goods unless this is impractical to measure reliably, in which case the value is derived from the cost to the donor or the estimated resale value. Donated facilities and services are recognised in the accounts when received if the value can be reliably measured. No amounts are included for the contribution of general volunteers.

• Income from contracts for the supply of services is recognised with the delivery of the contracted service. This is classified as unrestricted funds unless there is a contractual requirement for it to be spent on a particular purpose and returned if unspent, in which case it may be regarded as restricted.

1.5 Expenditure

• Expenditure is recognised on an accruals basis as a liability is incurred. Expenditure includes any VAT which cannot be fully recovered, and is classified under headings of the statement of financial activities to which it relates:

• Expenditure on raising funds includes the costs of all fundraising activities, events, non-charitable trading activities, and the sale of donated goods.

• Expenditure on charitable activities includes all costs incurred by a charity in undertaking activities that further its charitable aims for the benefit of its beneficiaries, including those support costs and costs relating to the governance of the charity apportioned to charitable activities.

• Other expenditure includes all expenditure that is neither related to raising funds for the charity nor part of its expenditure on charitable activities.

All costs are allocated to expenditure categories reflecting the use of the resource. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs are apportioned between the activities they contribute to on a reasonable, justifiable and consistent basis.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 37

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

1 Accounting policies (continued)

Overheads

Overhead costs are allocated to the relevant cost centres in the following proportions:

		A F Langford	L Walker
	Office costs	remuneration	remuneration
Conference costs	15%	7.5%	22.5%
Management and administration	45%	47.5%	60%
IBIS publishing costs	37.5%	45%	15%
Research costs	2.5%	–	2.5%
	100%	100%	100%

These proportions were decided upon by the trustees, who believe that they represent a fair reflection of the resources expended by the charity on each activity.

1.6 Fixed asset investments

Unlisted equity investments are initially recorded at cost, and subsequently measured at fair value. If fair value cannot be reliably measured, assets are measured at cost less impairment.

Listed investments are measured at fair value with changes in fair value being recognised in income or expenditure.

1.7 Cash and cash equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.

1.8 Financial instruments

The charity has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.

Financial instruments are recognised in the charity's balance sheet when the charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.

Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.

Basic financial assets

Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 38

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

1 Accounting policies (continued)

Basic financial liabilities

Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and bank loans are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.

Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.

Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

Derecognition of financial liabilities

Financial liabilities are derecognised when the charity’s contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.

1.9 Employee benefits

The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.

Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the charity is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.

2 Critical accounting estimates and judgements

In the application of the charity’s accounting policies, the Members of Council are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.

3	Donations and legacies	Unrestricted funds	Restricted funds	2024	2023
		£	£	£	£
	Donations and gifts	203	-	203	1,395
	Subscriptions	37,290	-	37,290	36,657

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 39

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

4 5 6 7	Charitable activities Publication income – IBIS Conference income Investments Unrestricted funds £ Income from listed investments 11,343 Interest receivable 15,394 26,737 For the year ended 31 December 2023 28,492 Raising funds Fundraising and publicity Management costs – purchases Management costs – wages and salaries Management costs – pension costs Fundraising and publicity Charitable activities Research – administration costs Publication costs – IBIS Conference costs Grant and bursary funding of activities (see note 8) Share of governance costs (see note 9)	Restricted Endowment funds funds general £ £ 4,687 1,667 – – 4,687 1,667 4,453 1,656	2024 £ 112,801 34,729 147,530 Total 2024 £ 23,858 10,743 34,601 2024 £ 6,533 44,523 4,087 55,143 2024 £ 1,709 59,796 48,748 110,253 82,555 16,914 209,722	2023 £ 118,906 30,356
				149,262
				Total 2023 £ 23,858 10,743
				34,601
				34,601
				2023 £ 4,637 42,911 4,321
				51,869
				2023 £ 1,574 60,097 32,166
				93,837 58,686 16,685
				169,208

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 40

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

8 Grants and bursaries payable

9

Grants and bursaries payable
Awards payable: Alejandro Corregidor-Castro (PhD Student, University of Padua, Italy) Alice J. Edney (D.Phil Student, Oxford University, UK) Simon Evans (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Exeter, UK) Sophie Harris (PhD Student, Newcastle University, UK) Stephanie Harris (Postdoctoral Researcher, Bangor University, UK) Jason Lacson (Graduate Teaching Associate (Ph.D Candidate), Arizona State University, USA) Andreia Malpica-Topete (Postdoctoral Researcher, Michoacan University of Saint Nicholas of Hidalgo, Mexico) Alper Yelimlieş (PhD candidate, Konrad Lorenz Research Centre for Behavior and Cognition, Austria) Charlie Russell (PhD Student, University of East Anglia, UK) Eugenia Andrea Bonetti (PhD Student, Marine and Coastal Research Institute, Argentina) Claire Branston (Post-doctoral Research Assistant, University of Glasgow, UK) Andrea Estandia (PhD student, Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, UK) Katarzyna Janas (Assistant Professor (adjunct), Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland) Rosanne José Michielsen (PhD student, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland) Gabriel López Segoviano (Postdoc, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico) Enriqueta Velarde (Senior Researcher, Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico) Akshay Bharadwaj (Masters student, Indian Institute of Science, India) Federico De Pascalis (Postdoctoral Associate, ISPRA, Italy) Conference attendance awards Grants to institutions: McGill University (John & Pat Warham Studentship - Émile Brisson-Curadeau) Monash University (John & Pat Warham Studentship - Dr Rohan Clarke) University of East Anglia, UK (John & Pat Warham Studentship – Kirsty Franklin) University of Cape Town (Brenda and Tony Gibbs Award - Arjun Amar) University of Oldenburg (Brenda and Tony Gibbs Award - Wieland Heim) Support and governance costs Support costs Governance costs £ £ Audit fees – 5,760 Legal and professional – – Accountancy – 4,878 Costs of trustees' and committee meetings – 1,876 Support Officers honoraria – 4,400 – 16,914 Analysed betweenCharitable activities – 16,914		2024 £ 1,166 2,000 1,850 1,965 1,999 1,889 2,000 1,970 2,000 1,948 - - - - - - - - 3,059 - 20,915 - 20,000 19,794 82,555 2024 £ 5,760 – 4,878 1,876 4,400 16,914 16,914		2023 £ - - - - - - - - - - 1,498 1,950 1,500 2,000 1,915 1,974 2,500 1,675 4,700 8,669 30,747 (442) - -
				58,686
				2023 £ 5,580 1,024 3,418 3,112 3,551
				16,685
				16,685

Governance costs includes payments to the auditors of £5,760 (2023 - £5,580) for audit fees and £4,878 (2023 - £3,418) for other services.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 41

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

10 Members of Council

None of the Members of Council (or any persons connected with them) received any remuneration or benefits from the charity during the year.

During the year four Members of Council were reimbursed expenses totalling £325 (2023 - two members were reimbursed expenses totalling £417). These expenses represent travelling costs incurred by the Members of Council in the performance of their duties.

11 Employees

Number of employees The average monthly number employees during the year was: Employment costs Wages and salaries Other pension costs	2024 2 2024 £ 81,213 7,389 88,602	2023 2
		2023 £ 78,231 7,983
		86,214

No employee received employee benefits of more than £60,000 during the year (2023 – nil).

12 Net gains/(losses) on investments Revaluation of investments Gain/(loss) on sale of investments	Unrestricted funds Endowment funds £ £ 10,467 7,377 – – 10,467 7,377	2024 Total Unrestricted funds Endowment funds general £ £ £ 17,844 11,771 1,925 – (17,674) – 17,844 (39,644) 1,925	2023 Total £ 13,696 (17,674)
			(3,978)

13 Taxation

The charity is exempt from tax on income and gains falling within section 505 of the Taxes Act 1988 or section 252 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 to the extent that these are applied to its charitable objects.

14	Fixed asset investments	Listed investments
	Cost or valuation	£
	At 1 January 2024	407,682
	Additions	4,306
	Valuation changes	17,845
	At 31 December 2024	429,833
	Carrying amount
	At 31 December 2024	429,833
	At 31 December 2023	407,682

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BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

15 Financial instruments Carrying amount of financial assets Trade debtors Other debtors Bank and cash Measured at cost Listed investments Measured at market value Carrying amount of financial liabilities Other taxation and social security Trade creditors Accruals Measured at cost 16 Debtors Amounts falling due within one year: Trade debtors Other debtors Prepayments and accrued income 17 Creditors Notes Amounts falling due within one year: Other taxation and social security Deferred income 18 Trade creditors Accruals	2024 £ 34,485 210 609,205 643,900 429,833 429,833 – 2,561 8,375 10,936 2024 £ 34,485 210 5,364 40,059 2024 £ – 26,276 2,561 8,375 37,212	2023 £ 47,353 1,118 648,913
		697,384
		407,682
		407,682
		683 – 17,982
		18,665
		2023 £ 47,353 1,118 7,253 55,724 2023 £ 683 24,394 – 17,982 41,527

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 43

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

18 Deferred income

Deferred income	2024	2023
	£	£
Other deferred income	26,276	22,862

Deferred income relates to subscriptions received in advance of £20,457 (2023 - £20,649) and income received in advance for conferences in future years of £5,819 (2023 - £2,213).

19 Pensions and other post-retirement benefits

Defined contribution pension plans

Contributions to defined contribution plans are recognised as an expense in the period in which the related service is provided.

The charge to profit or loss in respect of defined contribution plans was £7,389 (2023 - £7,983).

20 Restricted funds

The income funds of the charity include restricted funds comprising the following unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust for specific purposes:

Balance at 1 Jan 2023 £ Research Fund 83,956 John & Pat Warham Scholarship Fund 134,599 Brenda & Tony Gibbs Bequest 85,894 Small grants 10,000 314,449 Balance at 1 Jan 2024 £ Research Fund 88,409 John & Pat Warham Scholarship Fund 91,728 Brenda & Tony Gibbs Bequest 84,052 Small grants 7,002 271,191	Movement in funds (2023) Income Expenditure £ £ 4,453 – – (38,974) – (1,675) – (2,998) 4,453 (43,647) Movement in funds (2024) Income Expenditure £ £ 4,687 – – (20,915) – (43,742) – (3,016) 4,687 (67,673)	Transfers Balance at 31 Dec 2023 £ £ – 88,409 (3,897) 91,728 (167) 84,052 – 7,002 (4,064) 271,191 Transfers Balance at 31 Dec 2024 £ £ – 93,096 (2,092) 68,721 (4,374) 35,936 – 3,986 (6,466) 201,739	Transfers Balance at 31 Dec 2023 £ £ – 88,409 (3,897) 91,728 (167) 84,052 – 7,002 (4,064) 271,191 Transfers Balance at 31 Dec 2024 £ £ – 93,096 (2,092) 68,721 (4,374) 35,936 – 3,986 (6,466) 201,739
			201,739

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 44

Restricted funds include the Research Fund. This includes the income arising from investments held in the Endowment Fund.

The John & Pat Warham Scholarship Fund is to be used for research on Sphenisciform and Procellariiform seabirds and the income arising from investments.

The Brenda and Tony Gibbs Bequest is to be used for research on tracking and migration studies including the use of new technologies.

The transfer to the unrestricted fund represents an administration fee of 10% of the grants awarded from the John and Pat Warham Scholarship Fund and the Brenda and Tony Gibbs Bequest.

The small grants fund represents a donation that was received in 2022 that is to be used to award small grants in future years.

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 45

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

21 Endowment funds

Endowment funds represent assets which must be held permanently by the charity. Income arising on the endowment funds can be used in accordance with the objects of the charity and is included as restricted income. Any capital gains or losses arising on the assets form part of the fund.

L & MT Fund Research Fund Hutt Legacy L & MT Fund Research Fund Hutt Legacy	Balance at 1 Jan 2023 £ 121,696 10,610 21,352 153,658 Balance at 1 Jan 2024 £ 126,028 10,361 20,850 157,239	Movement in funds (2023) Income Expenditure Transfers Revaluations gains and losses Balance at 31 Dec 2023 £ £ £ £ £ 1,656 – – 2,676 126,028 – – – (249) 10,361 – – – (502) 20,850 1,656 – – (1,925) 157,239 Movement in funds (2024) Income Expenditure Transfers Revaluations gains and losses Balance at 31 Dec 2024 £ £ £ £ £ 1,667 – – 6,563 134,258 – – – 270 10,631 – – – 544 21,394 1,667 – – 7,377 166,283	Movement in funds (2023) Income Expenditure Transfers Revaluations gains and losses Balance at 31 Dec 2023 £ £ £ £ £ 1,656 – – 2,676 126,028 – – – (249) 10,361 – – – (502) 20,850 1,656 – – (1,925) 157,239 Movement in funds (2024) Income Expenditure Transfers Revaluations gains and losses Balance at 31 Dec 2024 £ £ £ £ £ 1,667 – – 6,563 134,258 – – – 270 10,631 – – – 544 21,394 1,667 – – 7,377 166,283
			166,283

The Landsborough and Mary Thomson Research Fund (L & MT Fund) and the Hutt Legacy represent funds set up by individual donors. The purpose of the L&MT Fund was to fund research. Income arising from the capital held in investments within Endowment Funds is credited to the restricted Research Fund. The Research Fund represents permanent capital, the income from which is transferred to the fund of the same name in Restricted Funds to be spent solely on research activities (e.g. grants and bursaries). The Hutt Legacy is intended for the general purposes of the Union and interest arising from this item is credited to General Unrestricted Funds which itself represents investments and net assets which are held for the daily running and maintenance of the charity.

22 Analysis of net assets between funds

Unrestricted funds Fund balances at 31 December 2024 are represented by: £ Investments 263,550 Current assets/(liabilities) 410,314 673,864	2024 Restricted funds Endowment funds £ £ – 166,283 201,738 – 201,738 166,283	Total 2023 £ 429,833 612,052
		1,041,885

BOU Annual Report & Accounts | 2024 | 46

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

22 Analysis of net assets between funds (continued)

Analysis of net assets between funds(continued)
Unrestricted funds Fund balances at 31 December 2023 are represented by: £ Investments 250,443 Current assets/(liabilities) 391,919 642,362	2023 Restricted funds Endowment funds £ £ – 157,239 271,191 – 271,191 157,239	Total 2022 £ 407,682 663,110
		1,070,792

23 Financial commitments, guarantees and contingent liabilities

During 2022 the charity awarded the final John and Pat Warham Studentship grant of £85,000 of which £33,338 (2023 - £54,253) is still to be paid to the recipient. This Studentship is due to run from 2023 to 2027.

24 Related party transactions

During the year payments of £5,035 (2023 - £4,796) were made to Professor J Gill, wife of G Appleton, a Trustee. This was for IBIS editorial services and the transactions were on an arms length basis.

Remuneration of key management personnel

The remuneration of key management personnel including employer pension contributions is as follows:

	2024	2023
	£	£
Aggregate compensation	50,754	48,570