Museum Winter Lecture: Great Auk – An Extraordinary Bird

7.30 - 9.00pm    14th Jan 2027    M Shed Studio, Prince's Wharf and Online 

Join us for the January Winter Lecture to explore the phenomenal life and afterlife of the extinct Great Auk

Shaped by Telegraph Book of the Year, The Great Auk: It’s Extraordinary Life, Hideous Death and Mysterious Afterlife, this talk will discuss the sad but salutary story of this historic bird.

Tim Birkhead, the speaker, is a Fellow of the Royal Society and emeritus professor of behaviour and evolution at the University of Sheffield.  His research on promiscuity and sperm competition in birds re-shaped our understanding of bird mating systems.  In addition, Tim has maintained one of the longest running studies of a North Atlantic seabird, the guillemot —a close relative of the great auk — on the Welsh Island of Skomer since 1972.

To book a place in person, or online via Zoom, visit the Museum’s website by clicking here.

The Museum Winter Lecture series is sponsored by The Friends