Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology

The FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology is a South African biological research and conservation institute based at the University of Cape Town. The mission statement of the institute is “to promote and undertake scientific studies involving birds, and contribute to the practice affecting the maintenance of biological diversity and the sustained use of biological resources”.

History
The FitzPatrick Institute was founded in 1959 through the efforts and financial support of Cecily Niven, the daughter of Sir Percy FitzPatrick, and was originally incorporated as a non-profit company. It is now incorporated within the University of Cape Town as an autonomous subunit within the department of Biological Sciences. It houses the Niven Library and has become the largest centre for ornithological research in the Southern Hemisphere. The name was changed in 2018 from the "Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of Ornithology".

Research
As of the end of 2022, research programs and initiatives included:


 * Coevolutionary arms races in brood-parasites and their hosts


 * The evolution, ecology and conservation of honeyguide-human mutualism
 * Cooperation and population dynamics in the Sociable Weaver
 * Pied Babblers
 * Sociable Weaver nests as a resource
 * Why do Afrotropical birds breed when they do?
 * Moult and migration
 * Threats, demography and mating systems of resident plovers
 * Evolution in island birds and the ‘insularity’ syndrome
 * Impacts of power infrastructure
 * Conserving Martial Eagles
 * Vulture conservation
 * Southern Ground-Hornbill conservation
 * Conserving Benguela endemic seabirds
 * Conserving Southern Ocean seabirds
 * Conserving islands and their birds