There's no greater Guillemot enthusiast than Tim Birkhead - but Bullfinches aren't so far behind

Tim Birkhead and friends

GUEST speaker at this week's annual meeting of the Lincolnshire Bird Club will be Prof Tim Birkhead who has long taught  animal behaviour and the history of science at the University of Sheffield.

His particular interest in birds has taken him all over the world in his quest better to understand what motivates every aspect of their behaviour from feeding to breeding.

Tim (75) is also an author whose authoritative and entertaining  books  include The Red Canary,  The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology,  Sperm Competition in Birds, The Magpies and Bird Sense: What It Is Like To Be A Bird.

However, his most recent work is The Great Auk: Its  Extraordinary Life, Hideous Death and Mysterious Afterlife. 

Published by Bloomsbury last year, it is a highly readable study of a bird that has captured the imagination of birders since it became extinct in the mid-19th Century.

Tim was born and brought up in Leeds where he went to school before attending the University of Newcastle where Zoology was his degree subject.

After graduating, he continued in the academic world, completing  a doctorate  on the ecology and behaviour of Guillemots on Skomer Island, off the Welsh Coast. This is probably his favourite species, along with, at home,  the Eurasian Bullfinch and, overseas, the Long-tailed Sylph - one of the South American hummingbirds.   

Aged 26, he was offered a position at Sheffield University where he has been ever since.

The father-of-three  attributes his interest in birds largely to his father who was a birdwatcher and who built him an aviary in the garden of the family home in Leeds

Among its occupants were Zebra Finches which, many years later, were kept in an aviary at Sheffield University to serve as main study species for a project to establish how birds' eggs are fertilised and how embryos develop. 

Had Tim's work as a scientist and author not kept him busy and fulfilled, he reckons he might like to have pursued a career as an artist, possibly specialising in the depiction of birds.

He includes painting among his recreational interests along with walking in the Peak District and playing the guitar, sometimes with colleagues.

Among professional guitarists he admires are  Eric Clapton, J. J. Cale, Rye Cooder and Paul Kossoff (of the band, Free).

Tim will be speaking at the education centre at Whisby Nature Reserve, near Lincoln, at 2pm on Saturday.

Admission  is free.

                            

Sadly, the Great Auk is long gone - but the legend lives on