Rob Robinson

Associate Director, Research

Office: Thetford

Team(s): Associate Director Team

Contact

Rob is one of the senior scientists of the British Trust for Ornithology and provides strategic leadership and co-ordination of research across BTO as a whole. This includes improving the support our scientists have to undertake analyses effectively and ensuring best use is made of the valuable data collected by volunteers both for academic research and to inform policy.

Interests and responsibilities

Changes in bird populations and distributions are determined by demography, particularly the combination of survival and productivity. Rob's main interest lies in understanding how these processes operate, within an applied context, how the sum of individuals creates them and how they vary at different scales.

Much of his recent work at BTO has focussed on combining data from the Ringing and Nest Record Schemes with data on population changes to understand the reasons for population declines. and census schemes to understand the reasons for population declines. This work involves applying novel statistical methods to make better use of national data and contributes to BirdTrends, the annual assessment of Britain's bird populations.

Rob started research with a particular focus on farmland birds, how they use their food supply and how changes in agriculture have, and will, afect them; effects of demographic parameters vary spatially, both geographically and with environmental variables such as habitat; Rob also has an interest in the role that diseases play in bird populations.

Other information

Chair, European Union of Ringing Schemes (EURING)
Associate Editor, Ibis
Honorary Reader, University of East Anglia
Visiting Researcher, Swiss Ornithological Institute
Scientific Chair of BOU 2014 Conference and Co-Chair Euring 2017 Analytical Meeting
Member Nominated Trustee, BTO Assured Pension Scheme

Qualifications

BSc (Hons) Zoology, Edinburgh University, 1989-1993. PhD Ecology and conservation of farmland birds, University of East Anglia, 1993-1997.

Recent BTO publications

Macgregor, C.J., Pearce-Higgins, J.W., Siriwardena, G.M., Wilson, M.W. & Robinson, R.A. 2025. Assessment of recent Hen Harrier population trends in England through population modelling. BTO Research Report 774:
Bruce, R.C., Abbott, A.J., Jones, B.P., Gardner, B.L., Gonzalez, E., Ionescu, A.-M., Jagdev, M., Jenkins, A., Santos, M., Seilern-Macpherson, K., Hanmer, H.J., Robinson, R.A., Vaux, A.G.C., Johnson, N., Cunningham, A.A., Lawson, B., Medlock, J.M. & Folly, A.J. 2025. Detection of West Nile virus via retrospective mosquito arbovirus surveillance, United Kingdom, 2025. Eurosurveillance 30: doi:10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2025.30.28.2500401
Green, R.E., Taggart, M.A., Pain, D.J., Clark, N.A., Cromie, R., Dodd, S.G., Elliot, B., Green, R.M.W., Greenwood, L., Huntley, B., Leslie, R., Porter, R., Price, M., Roberts, J., Robinson, R.A., Smith, K.W., Smith, L., Spencer, J., David Stroud, D. & Thompson, T. 2025. The proportion of common pheasants shot using lead shotgun ammunition in Britain has barely changed over five years of voluntary efforts to switch from lead to non-lead ammunition. Conservation Evidence 22: 18-25 doi:10.52201/CEJ22/EXYS6184
Barnes, A.E., Poccock, M.J.O., Harris, M., Newton, N. & Robinson, R.A. 2025. Not just species recording: the potential of citizen science for habitat monitoring. Landscape Ecology 40: doi:10.1007/s10980-025-02155-4
Clarke, J.A., Smith, J.A., Leach, E., Boersch-Supan, P.H. & Robinson, R.A. 2025. How many eggs are too many? Utilizing an under-dispersed count data model to gain insights into evolutionary productivity constraints on bird species. Environmetrics 36: doi:10.1002/env.70032

Border, J.A., Robinson, R.A., Pearce-Higgins , J.W., Hewson, C.M., Howard, C., Stephens, P.A., Willis, S.G., von Rönn, J.A.C., Henry, P.-Y., Lorrilliere, R., Serra, L., Imperio, S., Gargallo, G., Baltà, O., Karcza, Z., Vangeluwe, D., Valkama, J., Perez, C., Bensusan, K., Fransson, T., Herrmann, C., Bairlein, F., Fiedler, W., Horton, J. & Baillie, S.R. 2025. Temporal changes to migratory fuel load in migratory birds across Europe. Global Change Biology 31: doi:10.1111/gcb.70570
Morrison, C.A., Gill, J.A., Buchan, C., Robinson, R.A., Arizaga, J., Baltà, O., Baltag, E., Cepák, J., Henry, P.-Y., Henshaw, I.,Karcza, Z., Lehikoinen, P., Jorge Lopes, R., Meister, B., Pirello, S., Thorup, K. & Butler, S.J. 2025. How do synchrony in survival and productivity influence abundance synchrony in European landbirds?. Ecology Letters 28: doi:10.1111/ele.70105
Johnston, D.T., Atkinson, P.W., Leech, E.I., Burton, N.H.K., Humphreys, E.M., Robinson, R.A., Blackburn, J.R., Blackburn, A.C., Brides, K., Boland, H., Burke, B., Daunt, F., Davies, J.C., Edwards, P.J., Furness, R.W., Holman, D., Redfern, C.P.F., Swann, R.L., Roper, P., Stansfield, S.D., Walsh, A.J. & Pearce-Higgins, J.W 2025. Using ring (band) recovery data to examine the impact of high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) on wild bird populations. Bird Study 72: 39-50 doi:10.1080/00063657.2025.2491797
Walker, R.H., Robinson, R.A., Barimore, C.J., Blackburn, J.R., Barber, L.J., Bugg, N.R., McCambridge, H.E., Grantham, M.J., Griffin, B.M., Leighton, K. & Schäfer, S. 2024. Bird ringing and nest recording in Britain and Ireland in 2021. Ringing & Migration 38: 44-88 doi:10.1080/03078698.2023.2284510
O’Hanlon, N.J., Harris, S.J., Thaxter, C.B., Boersch-Supan, P.H., Robinson, R.A., Balmer, D.E. & Burton, N.H.K. 2024. Seabird population and demographic monitoring in the UK: a review and recommendations for future sampling. BTO Research Report 754: