Senior Research Ecologist
Jenni is an experienced population and spatial modeller who joined the Framing Futures team after completing a NERC-funded postdoc entitled ‘Explaining and Predicting the Migration and Phenology of European-African Migratory Birds’ undertaken in collaboration with Durham University.
Interests and responsibilities
Jenni’s research focuses on African-Eurasian migratory birds and has involved collating an extensive set of tracking, ringing and observation data on trans-Saharan migrant songbirds from Europe and Africa, and using large-scale spatiotemporal modelling techniques to look at changes in phenology, distributions and weights of a large number of species over space and time.
In her previous four years as a Spatial Ecologist at BTO, Jenni worked on a wide range of projects, primarily centred around large datasets and modelling distributions and trends. These included:
- predictive modelling of bats’ spatial sensitivity to urbanisation and opportunities for birds and bats from habitat restoration;
- assessing gaps in survey coverage at a UK level for birds, bats, butterflies and plants;
- investigating the likelihood of non-native species invading the UK;
- modelling breeding phenology in farmland birds;
- modelling spatiotemporal change in UK bird trends;
- determining cuckoo use of protected areas and determining drivers of change in moorland breeding bird populations.
Before joining BTO, Jenni was involved in research such as determining population limitations in a lowland grassland migrant (the Whinchat), tagging and tracking seabirds and eradicating the invasive myna birds in the Seychelles.
Qualifications
2012-2015 - PhD, Lancaster University, “Determinants of survival, productivity and recruitment in a declining migrant bird, the whinchat, Saxicola rubetra”.
2005-2009 - BSc Honours Ecology and Conservation, University of St Andrews.
Recent BTO publications
- 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
- Border, J.A., Pearce-Higgins, J.W., Hewson, C., Howard, C., Stephens, P.A., Willis, S.G., Fuller, R.A., Hanson, J.O., Sierdsema, H., Foppen, R.B.P., Brotons, L., Gargallo, G. & Baillie, S.R. 2025. Evaluating protected area coverage for migratory bird species across space and time. Nature Communications 16: doi:10.1038/s41467-025-57019-x
- Border, J.A., Boersch-Supan, P., Pearce-Higgins, J.W., Hewson, C., Howard, C., Stephens, P.A., Willis, S.G., Houston, A., Gargallo, G. & Baillie, S.R. 2024. Spatial variation in spring arrival patterns of Afro-Palearctic bird migration across Europe. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33: doi:10.1111/geb.13850
- Sharps, E., Hawkes, R., Bladon, A., Buckingham, D., Border, J., Morris, A., Grice, P. & Peach, W. 2023. Reversing declines in farmland birds: how much agri-environment provision is needed at farm and landscapes scales?. Journal of Applied Ecology 60: 568-580 doi:10.1111/1365-2664.14338
- Barton, M.G., Henderson, I., Border, J.A. & Siriwardena, G.M. 2023. A review of the impacts of air pollution on terrestrial birds. Science of The Total Environment 873: doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162136
Other publications
Feare, C.J., van der Woude, J., Greenwell, P., Edwards, H.A., Taylor, J.A., Larose, C.S., Ahlen, P.-A., West, J.,Chadwick, W., Pandey, S., Garcia, F., Komdeur, J. & de Groene, A. 2016. Eradication of Common Mynas Acridotheres tristis from Denis Island, Seychelles. Pest Management Science. DOI 10.1002/ps.4263.
Taylor, J. A. 2015. Determinants of variation in productivity, adult survival and recruitment in a declining migrant bird: the Whinchat, Saxicola rubetra. PhD Thesis. Lancaster University, Lancaster.
Taylor, J. A., Henderson, I. G., Hartley, I. R. 2015. Breeding Whinchats (Saxicola rubetra) on Salisbury Plain: Evidence that carrying capacity is not currently limited by habitat or food availability. In: Bastian, H-V., Feulner, J. (eds): Living on the Edge of Extinction in Europe. Proc. 1st European Whinchat symposium: 211-218. LBV Hof, Helmbrechts.
Feare, C.J., Edwards,H., Taylor, J.A., Greenwell, P. A., Larose,C. S., Mokhoko, E. & Dine. M. 2015. Stars in their eyes: iris colour and pattern in Common Mynas Acridotheres tristis on Denis and North Islands, Seychelles. Bull. B.O.C. 2015, 135: 61-68.