About the event

Join us in a day of celebrating the Wonder of Birds, bursting with inspiring activities for all ages. Enjoy a rich programme of talks and performance from artists, authors and bird specialists. Get stuck into conversations with researchers, authors and bird specialists at our Living Library, discover fascinating facts with the RSPB, and let your imagination take flight in bird-inspired dance workshops with MuMo Creative.

Get creative with bird-themed family activities, dive into magical storytelling sessions, and print your own free keepsake on our historic printing press. Whether you’re a seasoned bird enthusiast or simply curious, there’s something to delight everyone.

Activities in Blackwell Hall, 11.00 – 15.00

• Free keepsake printing on a historic printing press
• Family craft activities
• RSPB stall

Myth, Art and Storytelling Workshops 

Escape the everyday with a spontaneous creative session of art and storytelling, reimagining a Greek myth of two people who were changed to birds.

In our informal story circle we will sketch and doodle, make wings of words, share stories of transformation and create our own characters and voices.

No art or writing experience needed! Places are limited, booking required.

• Session 1 (11.00 – 12.30): for children aged 8-12 to attend with a supervising adult.
• Session 2 (13.30 – 15.00): for adults only

This activity is brought to you by the ‘Myth and Voice: immersive storytelling with communities’ project.

Book now

Wonder of Birds: A creative dance and music workshop with MuMo Creative, 11.30 – 13.30

Join us in a synergy of sound, movement and creativity in this workshop co-created by MuMo Creative and their Dance for Parkinson's and Dance for Joy groups. Inspired by our Wonder of Birds exhibition, the workshop combines music, dance and creative exercises to boost physical and mental wellbeing, and to celebrate the transformative effects of dance and music.

Whether you’d like to take part in the dance workshop or simply enjoy the performance from the audience, all are welcome to experience this inclusive and fun event. 

The workshop is free, drop-in and suitable for all capabilities, but is aimed at adults only. 

Living Library in Blackwell Hall, 14.00 – 15.00

Select a title from our bookshelf and take it to the person who matches the picture on the cover for a 10-minute conversation about their work / research. 

• Dr Steve Portugal, Associate Professor of Animal Behaviour at Oxford University.
• Derek Neimann, author of Birds in a Cage.
• RSPB Officer Beth Newark.
• Professor Andrew Gosler, Professor of Ethno-ornithology at Oxford University and Fellow in Human Sciences, Mansfield College.

Talks in the Sir Victor Blank Lecture Theatre

Drop in to any of these free talks in the lecture theatre. 

Connections Between Birdsong and Music with Oli Steadman, 11.15 – 12.00

Oli Steadman (of award-winning band Stornoway), explores the deep connection between birdsong and music, drawing on the band's work weaving the sounds of endangered species into records and their live performances, including at Oxford's Sheldonian Theatre and London's Royal Albert Hall. He'll share how music can be used to raise awareness of threatened bird species and inspire people to reconnect with the natural world around them.

Oli will be selling copies of Stornoway’s latest album Beyonder in Blackwell Hall from 12.30 – 15.00. Alternatively, you can pre-order your copy for collection on the day.

Watching Ourselves Watching Birds with Daniel & Clara, 13.30 – 14.00

Join artist Daniel & Clara for a special screening of their moving-image portrait of a peregrine falcon, followed by an illustrated talk on their Birding project. Exploring the optical and psychological processes involved in looking at birds, the talk will trace a year of daily birdwatching that resulted in the Green Letters, featured in the Bodleian Libraries' current exhibition Wonder of Birds. Daniel & Clara will also discuss their moving image, photographic and mail art works depicting wild birds, trained birds and taxidermy specimens, reflecting on how birds have been observed, represented and imagined throughout history.

Discover how their work reveals the complex relationship between watcher and bird, and the role images play in shaping our understanding of the natural world.

Reading of Himmelsstriche (Flight Lines) with Bernhard Malkmus, 14.15 – 15.00

Flight Lines is a memoir and ecological reflection on life on the Northumbrian coast and in the Scottish mountains. It follows the homing instincts of birds and humans in a region associated with major scientific and technological revolutions in modernity. Excursions through these northern territories pose poignant questions about our human condition in an age of pandemics and extinction. First and foremost, the book is a celebration of the beauty and endurance of seabird life. It explores how birds can connect us with the regenerative cycles of life – and how our survival as a species depends on our ability to co-exist with non-human lifeforms. Flight Lines garnered rave reviews when it appeared in Germany in 2025.

The reading by the author Professor Bernhard Malkmus and the translator Marielle Sutherland will be in English.

Speakers

Oli Steadman plays bass with Stornoway, an award-winning Oxford-based band whose music directly supports biodiversity and has helped inspire community interest in bird species. Alongside the band, Oli performs folk music as "365 Days Of Folk" and runs a series of nature and music-themed events in an ongoing mission to #FreeTheBatteryHuman.

Since meeting in 2010, artist Daniel & Clara have dedicated themselves to a shared life of creative experimentation, working across moving image, photography, performance and mail art to explore the nature of human experience, perception and reality. Their work has been exhibited and screened at Norwich Castle Museum (2025), Art Exchange, Colchester (2024), Focal Point Gallery, Southend (2021), By Art Matters, Hangzhou (2021), Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Grand Palais Paris & HKW Berlin (2020). In 2025 they were a recipient of the Henry Moore Foundation Artists Award.

Professor Bernhard Malkmus is Professor of German and Environmental Humanities at the University of Oxford, a poet and a nature writer.

Marielle Sutherland is a literary translator and official translator at the German Historical Institute in London. Her translations include the OUP World Classics edition of RM Rilke's poetry and a wide range of contemporary authors. 

More information