Senior Research Ecologist
Role and responsibilities
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
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., 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., 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., 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
- 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
- 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
- Border, J.A., Gillings, S., Reynolds, T., Neeve, G. & Newson, S.E. 2022. Can citizen science provide a solution for bat-friendly planning?. Landscape & Urban Planning 223: doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2022.104402
- Calladine, J., Border, J., O’Connell, P. & Wilson, M. 2022. Modelling important areas for breeding waders as a tool to target conservation and minimise conflicts with land use change. Journal for Nature Conservation 70: doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2022.126267
- Border, J.A. & Calladine, J. 2021. Sensitivities to land use change by breeding Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) in Britain. Airo 29: 54-65
- Border, J.A. & Gillings, S. 2020. Fine-scale mapping of relative abundance and trends, and extraction of small-area population trends for breeding birds. BTO Research Report
- Fay, F., Schaub, M., Border, J.A., Henderson, I.G., Fahl, G., Feulner, J., Horch, P., Müller, M., Rebstock, H., Shitikov, D., Tome, D., Vögeli, M. & Grüebler, M.U. 2020. Evidence for senescence in survival but not in reproduction in a short-lived passerine. Ecology and Evolution doi:10.1002/ece3.6281
- Burgess, M.D., Finch, T., Border, J.A., Castello, J., Conway, G., Ketcher, M., Lawrence, M., Orsman, C.J., Mateos, J., Proud, A., Westerberg, S., Wiffen, T. & Henderson, I.G. 2020. Weak migratory connectivity, loop migration and multiple non‐breeding site use in British breeding Whinchats Saxicola rubetra. Ibis doi:10.1111/ibi.12825
- Gili, F., Newson, S.E., Gillings, S., Chamberlain, D.E. & Border, J.A. 2019. Bats in urbanising landscapes: habitat selection and recommendations for a sustainable future. Biological Conservation 241: doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2019.108343
- Border, J.A., Johnston, A. & Gillings, S. 2018. Can climate matching predict the current and future climatic suitability of the UK for the establishment of non-native birds?. Bird Study 65: 83. doi:10.1080/00063657.2018.1438362
- Jennifer A. Border, Dario Massimino, Simon Gillings 2018. Potential Future Distribution & Abundance Patterns of Common Buzzards Buteo Buteo.
- Border, J.A., Atkinson, L.R., Henderson, I.G., Hartley, I.R. 2017. Nest monitoring does not affect nesting success of Whinchats Saxicola rubetra. IBIS doi:10.1111/ibi.12574
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.