NZ Bird Conference 2026: Call for Abstracts
The 2026 New Zealand Bird Conference will be held in Wānaka, Otago over King’s Birthday weekend with two days of scientific presentations on Saturday 30th May and Sunday 31st May, followed by regional field trips on Monday 1st June.
Abstracts for oral or poster presentations on any topic relevant to Birds New Zealand can be submitted as a MS Word document attachment to conference@birdsnz.org.nz. Use ‘Oral/Poster Abstract-FIRST AUTHOR LAST NAME’ in the subject line of your email. The closing date for abstract submissions will be 28th February 2026. The Conference Scientific Committee will assess all abstracts and contact applicants with their decision by the end of March.
Oral presentations
Oral presentations should be 12 minutes long with an additional 3 minutes for questions. If too many presentations are submitted for the time available, speakers may be given the option for a 5-minute talk without question time. Accompanying slides should be presented via MS PowerPoint ready for PC-based projection equipment. Please bear in mind that many of the audience at the conference will be lay people with little/no scientific training. Talks, including accompanying slides, should therefore make sense to a general audience.
For examples of previously published abstracts, please visit: https://www.birdsnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025-Conference-Programme-with-Abstracts.pdf
Posters
Posters should ideally be size A0 (841mm × 1189mm) and in portrait orientation. Posters will be displayed for the duration of the conference and presenters will have the opportunity to promote their poster as a one-minute pitch (with one accompanying slide if desired) during a session on the Saturday, and are encouraged to stand by their poster during the following break.
For advice please see “10 Simple Rules for a Good Poster Presentation” ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1876493/.
Abstracts
Abstracts of accepted presentations and posters from registered conference participants will be included in the conference’s online booklet. Please indicate if the first author is a student. Preference will be given to abstracts submitted by Birds New Zealand members.
Abstracts should follow the formatting of this template: https://www.birdsnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Template-for-Abstracts.pdf
For questions, please contact conference@birdsnz.org.nz.