| class="wikitable"
! Year !! Lecturer !! Subject |
| 1968 | Arthur Landsborough Thomson | The sub-species concept[{{cite journal | title=Editorial Board | journal=Bird Study | volume=16 | issue=1 | date=1969 | issn=0006-3657 | doi=10.1080/00063656909476210 | pages=ebi}}] |
| 1969 | David Lack | The number of bird species on islands |
| 1970 | H. N. Southern | Tawny Owls[{{cite book | last=Martin | first=Jeff | title=The Tawny Owl | publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing | date=2022-09-29 | isbn=978-1-4729-4356-9 | page=16}}] |
| 1971 | E. M. Nicholson | Geograms[{{cite web |url=https://archives.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repositories/2/archival_objects/315692 |title=Witherby Memorial Lecture, British Trust for Ornithology, 4 Dec 1971, 1971 |publisher=Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts |access-date=10 July 2024}}] |
| 1972 | Peter Scott | Species extinction in birds |
| 1973 | Beryl Patricia Hall | Speciation and specialisation[{{cite journal | title=In Memoriam: Beryl Patricia Hall, 1917–2010 | journal=The Auk | volume=129 | issue=1 | date=2012 | doi=10.1525/auk.2012.129.1.179 | pages=179}}] |
| 1974 | Desmond Nethersole-Thompson | Greenshanks |
| 1975 | J. C. Coulson | Ringing as an ecological tool |
| 1976 | Geoge Dunnet | The ages of birds – adolescence and senility |
| 1977 | David Snow | The relationships between the African and European avifaunas[{{cite journal | last=Snow | first=D. W. | title=Relationships between the European and African Avifaunas | journal=Bird Study | volume=25 | issue=3 | date=1978 | issn=0006-3657 | doi=10.1080/00063657809476588 | pages=134–148}}] |
| 1979 | Stanley Cramp | Ornithology and bird conservation |
| 1980 | Derek Ratcliffe | The Peregrine falcon |
| 1981 | W. G. Hale | The biology of the Redshank |
| 1982 | Janet Kear | Some thoughts on eggs |
| 1983 | Chris Perrins | A study of the Great tit |
| 1984 | Patrick Bateson | Imprinting in young birds |
| 1985 | Ian Newton | Individual performance in Sparrowhawks |
| 1986 | C. H. Fry | The Bee-eaters |
| 1987 | Fred Cooke | Natural selection in Snow Geese |
| 1988 | P. R. Evans | Migration strategies of shorebirds |
| 1989 | John Krebs, Baron Krebs | Food hoarding in tits |
| 1991 | J. D. Goss-Custard | The importance of scale in the study of bird populations |
| 1992 | Dick Potts | Is there a future for farmland birds? |
| 1993 | Peter Berthold | Some new developments in bird migration research |
| 1994 | John Lawton | All change? Numbers and range in the field and in the mind[{{cite journal | last=Lawton | first=J.H. | title=Population abundances, geographic ranges and conservation: 1994 Witherby Lecture | journal=Bird Study | volume=43 | issue=1 | date=1996 | issn=0006-3657 | doi=10.1080/00063659609460991 | pages=3–19}}] |
| 1995 | A. Watson | Thinking, practice and people in bird population ecology |
| 1996 | M. Owen | Wildlife and water: partnerships for effective action |
| 1997 | M. P. Harris | Individuality in a densely colonial seabird: the Common Guillemot |
| 1998 | J. P Croxall | Albatrosses, Fisheries and Futures |
| 1999 | D. T. Parkin | Birding and DNA[{{cite journal | last=Parkin | first=David T. | title=Birding and DNA: species for the new millennium | journal=Bird Study | volume=50 | issue=3 | date=2003 | issn=0006-3657 | doi=10.1080/00063650309461316 | pages=223–242}}] |
| 2000 | David Harper | The public and private lives of Robins |
| 2001 | Franz Bairlein | The study of bird migration: where to go? |
| 2002 | Nicholas Barry Davies | Cuckoo versus host |
| 2003 | David Murray Bryant | Swallows – life in an uncertain world |
| 2004 | Pat Monaghan | Bad beginnings and untimely ends: Life history trade-offs in birds |
| 2005 | W. J. Sutherland | Science and Conservation |
| 2006 | Theunis Piersma | What is it like to be a Knot? Towards a cognitive ecology of shorebirds |
| 2007 | Mick Marquiss | Case studies with predatory birds |
| 2008 | Peter Grant | Evolution of Darwin's finches |
| 2009 | Fernando Spina | Birds and rings across the Mediterranean: the role of ringing for science and for conservation in Italy |
| 2010 | Tim Birkhead | Sperm and Eggs: Promiscuity in birds |
| 2011 | Rhys Green | Birth, death and bird conservation |
| 2012 | Sarah Wanless | An Exaltation of Auks |
| 2013
|Graham Martin
|Through Birds' Eyes |
| 2014
|Kevin Gaston
|Birds in an urbanising world |
| 2015
|{{ill|qid=Q29629362|Jenny Gill (ornithologist)|reasonator=1|lt=Jenny Gill}}
|Migration in space and time |
| 2016
|Ben Sheldon
|Coping with a variable world: plasticity and social learning in Great tit |
| 2017
|Stuart Bearhop
|The ups and downs of an extreme migrant |
| 2018
|Jane Reid
|Ringing, Birding, Migration Ecology & Evolution |
| 2019
|Bob Furness
|What have the ringers ever done for us? How amateurs make British ornithology great. |
| 2020
|Caren Cooper
|Flock Together: Innovations Migrating Across Citizen Science |
| 2021
|Claire Spottiswoode
|Coevolution as an engine of biodiversity: insights from African birds |
| 2022
|Professor Peter Marra
|Studying Birds in the Context of the Full Annual Cycle[{{cite web |url=https://www.bto.org/community/events/202212-bto-conference-2022-session-5-witherby-lecture-studying-birds-context-full |title=BTO Conference 2022: Session 5 The Witherby Lecture - Studying birds in the context of the full annual cycle with Dr Peter Marra |publisher=BTO |access-date=9 July 2024}}] |
| 2023
|No lecture
| |
| 2024
|Dr Norman Ratcliffe
|Ashmole’s halo and Hutchinson’s hypervolume |