Honorary Research Fellow
Office:
Thetford
Team(s):
Science Research Fellows
Role and responsibilities
Rob retired as a member of BTO staff in 2015 following a long career at the BTO. As an Honorary Research Fellow, he undertakes research and writes on forest ecology, habitat selection in birds and conservation management with a focus on provision of information for conservation managers and landowners.
Interests
- Environmental factors influencing spatial and temporal variation in temperate woodland and shrubland bird communities. This includes the consequences of increased deer browsing and responses to human and natural disturbances.
- Effects of different woodland management systems on vegetation structure and habitat suitability for birds.
- Rewilding – its complementarity to interventionist approaches to habitat management for conservation.
- Long-term population change and density-dependent habitat selection in the breeding waders of the Uists and Benbecula, Outer Hebrides.
- Habitat use by wintering farmland birds, especially Golden Plovers and Lapwings, and long-term changes in populations and distributions.
- Former BTO Director of Science (1987-2014) leading a department covering programmes of work on wetland and terrestrial birds
- Principal or co-investigator on >30 biodiversity-related projects, contributing to the evidence base for policy and practice
- Supervised Bird Atlas 2007-11: The breeding and wintering birds of Britain and Ireland
- Edited two books published by Cambridge Univ. Press: Birds and Habitat: Relationships in Changing Landscapes (2012) and Ecology and Conservation of Forest Birds (2018, co-edited)
- Editor of the British Wildlife series ‘Wilding for Conservation’ (2021-
2025) - Editorial Board: Ecology, Biodiversity & Conservation series, Cambridge Univ. Press (since 2018)
Qualifications
- BSc Zoology (1st Class), Imperial College, London University 1973 PhD University of London (external), ‘Composition and structure of bird communities in Britain’ 1987.
- Honorary Professor, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia.
- The RSPB Medal fo services to nature conservation, awarded 2014.
- Godman-Salvin Medal of the British Ornithologists' Union, awarded 2013.
Recent BTO publications
- Kirkland, M., Annorbah, N.N.D., Barber, L., Black, J., Blackburn, J., Colley, M., Clewley, G., Cross, C., Drew, M., Fox, O.J.L., Gilson, V., Hahn, S., Holt, C., Hulme, M.F., Jarjou, J., Jatta, D., Jatta, E., Mensah-Pebi, E., Orsman, C., Sarr, N., Walsh, R., Zwartz, L., Fuller, R.J., Atkinson, P.W. & Hewson, C.M. 2025. Extreme migratory connectivity and mirroring of non-breeding grounds conditions in a severely declining breeding population of an Afro-Palearctic migratory bird. Scientific Reports 14: doi:10.1038/s41598-025-86484-z
- Broughton, R.K., Cholewa, M., Czeszczewik, D., Fuller, R.J., Jaroszewicz, B., Kuijper, D.P.J., Maziarz, M., Mikusiński, G. & Neubauer, G. 2025. The Białowieża Forest as an example of the resilience of long-term studies in a changing world. Biological Conservation 304: doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111045
- Calladine, J., Fuller, R., Hodkinson, D., Franks, S. & Boyle, J. 2023. Changes in breeding wader populations of the Uist machair and adjacent habitats between 1983 and 2022. Scottish Birds 43: 132-140
- Fuller, R. & Gilroy, J. 2021. Rewilding and intervention: complementary philosophies for nature conservation in Britain. British Wildlife 32: 267.
- Fuller, R. 2021. Woodland management and birds. Part 1. Sylvicultural systems and tree species.. Quarterly Journal of Forestry 115: 174.
- Fuller, R. 2021. Woodland management and birds. Part 2. Conservation measures and strategies. Quarterly Journal of Forestry 115: 244.
- Fuller, R.J. & Green, T. 2020. Breeding bird communities within a parkland-woodland continuum: the distinctiveness of wood-pasture. Arboricultural Journal doi:10.1080/03071375.2020.1767965
- Gillings, S., Balmer, D.E., Caffrey, B.J., Downie, I.S., Gibbons, D.W., Lack, P.C., Reid, J.B., Sharrock, J.T.R., Swann, R.L. & Fuller, R.J. 2019. Breeding and wintering bird distributions in Britain and Ireland from citizen science bird atlases. Global Ecology and Biogeography 28: 874. doi:10.1111/geb.12906
- Siriwardena, G.M., Henderson, I.G., Noble, D.G., & Fuller, R.J. 2019. How can assemblage structure indices improve monitoring of change in bird communities using ongoing survey data?. Ecological Indicators 104: 685. doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.05.046
- Hewson, C.M., Miller, M., Johnston, A., Conway, G.J., Saunders, R., Marchant, J.H. & Fuller, R.J. 2018. Estimating national population sizes: Methodological challenges and applications illustrated in the common nightingale, a declining songbird in the UK. Journal of Applied Ecology 55: 2018. doi:10.1111/1365-2664.13120
- Heward, C.J., Hoodless, A.N., Conway, G.J., Fuller, R.J., MacColl, A.D.C. & Aebisher, N.J. 2018. Habitat correlates of Eurasian Woodcock Scolopax rusticola abundance in a declining resident population. Journal of Ornithology 11. doi:10.1007/s10336-018-1570-z
- OCKENDON, N., THOMAS, D.H.L., CORTINA, J., ADAMS, W.M., AYKROYD, T., BAROV, B., BOITANI, L., BONN, A., BRANQUINHO, C., BROMBACHER, M., BURRELL, C., CARVER, S., CRICK, H.Q.P., DUGUY, B., EVERETT, S., FOKKENS, B., FULLER, R.J., GIBBONS, D.W., GOKHELASHVILI, R., GRIFFIN, C., HALLEY, D.J., HOTHAM, P., HUGHES, F.M.R., KARAMANLIDIS, A.A., MCOWEN, C.J., MILES, L., MITCHELL, R., RANDS, M.R.W., ROBERTS, J., SANDOM, C.J., SPENCER, J.W., TEN BROEKE, E., TEW, E.R., THOMAS, C.D. , TIMOSHYNA, A., UNSWORTH, R.K.F., WARRINGTON, S. & SUTHERLAND, W.J. 2018. One hundred priority questions for landscape restoration in Europe. Biological Conservation 221: 208. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2018.03.002
- MIKUSIŃSKI, G., ROBERGE, J.M. & FULLER, R.J. 2018. Ecology and Conservation of Forest Birds.
- Alder, D.C., Fuller, R.J. & Marsden, S.J. 2018. Implications of transformation to irregular silviculture for woodland birds: A stand wise comparison in an English broadleaf woodland. Forest Ecology and Management 422: 78. doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2018.04.004
- Fuller, R.J., Casey, D., Melin, M. & Hill, R. 2018. Rapid progression of ash dieback in the coppice of Bradfield Woods, Suffolk. Quarterly Journal of Forestry
Other publications
- Fuller, R.J., Henderson, A.C.B. & Holt, C.A. 2025. Four decades of bird community change in two lowland English woods. British Birds 118: 225-247.
- Fuller, R.J. 2022. Population density and stability of breeding birds in English oak woodland over a 32-year period in relation to habitat structure and edges. Acta Ornithologica 57: 49-70.
- Fuller, R. & Gilroy, J. 2021. Rewilding and intervention: complementary philosophies for nature conservation in Britain.
British Wildlife 32: 258-267. - Fuller, R. 2021. Woodland management and birds. Part 1. Silvicultural systems and tree species. Quarterly Journal of Forestry, 115, 168-174.
- Fuller, R. 2021. Woodland management and birds. Part 2. Conservation measures and strategies. Quarterly Journal of Forestry 115: 238-244.