Research interests/expertise: History of collections, bird egg collections and the comprehensive archives of the Scottish naturalist J. A. Harvie–Brown (1844–1916).

Bob has a BSc Hons in Zoology from the University of Edinburgh and joined the bird section at National Museums Scotland in 1978, where he retired as Senior Curator in 2022.

He has held appointments as museum consultant to Scottish Birds Records Committee (SBRC), member of the British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee (BOURC) from 2001 to 2010, member of the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club Council and Library Committee (the latter from 2008), and editor and author for The Birds of Scotland (2007).

As Research Associate, he is focusing on several specific egg collections, including integrating the recent donation of the Bruce Campbell (1912–1993) collection which comprises 1,161 clutches of 4,438 bird eggs mainly from the UK, but also from Spain, British Columbia, South Africa, and Bermuda. He is also compiling complete listings of the Oswin A. J. Lee and F. Grant collections.

Selected publications

McInerny, C.J. & McGowan, R.Y. 2025. Historical records of Ortolan Bunting in Scotland: a review. Scottish Birds45: 216-230.

McInerny, C.J., McGowan, R.Y. & Wilkinson, M.A. 2025. Scottish Birds Records Committee report on rare birds in Scotland, 2023. Scottish Birds45: 99-121.

McInerny, C.J. & McGowan, R.Y. 2024. Historical records of Woodlark Lullula arborea in Scotland: a review, a confirmed breeding occurrence, and a specimen with features of the southern subspecies L.a. pallida.Scottish Birds 44: 202-213.

McInerny, C.J. McGowan, R.Y., Sellers, R.M., Cafiso, M and J.M. Collinson. 2024. A review of early historical records of Collared Pratincoles in Britain, and new British first records of Collared, Black-winged and Oriental Pratincoles. British Birds 117: 152-167.

McGowan, R.Y. 2024. The North Sea Bird Club and National Museums Scotland. In: Thorpe, A. 2024. The North Sea Bird Club 1979-2019, pp 112-114.

McInerny, C.J., McGowan, R.Y., Clark, J.M., Moody, M.P., Senfeld, T., Collinson, J.M. & Harrop, A.H.J. 2023. An apparent nineteenth-century record of Scopoli’s Shearwater in Hampshire. British Birds116: 222-227.

Marini, M.A., Hall, L., Bates, J., Steinheimer, F.D., McGowan, R., Silveira, L.F., Lijtmaer, D.A., Tubaro, P.L., Córdoba-Córdoba, S., Gamauf, A., Greeney, H.F., Schweizer, M., Kamminga, P., Cibois, A., Vallotton, L., Russell, D., Robinson, S.K., Sweet, P.R., Frahnert, S. & Hemming, N.M. 2020. The five million bird eggs in the world’s museum collections are an invaluable and underused resource. Auk137: 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1093/auk/ukaa036

Jones, C.G., Jackson, H.A., McGowan, R.Y., Hume, J.P, Forshaw, J.M., Tatayah, V., Winters, R. & Groombridge, J.J. 2018. A parakeet specimen held at National Museums Scotland is a unique skin of the extinct Reunion Parakeet Psittacula eques eques: a reply to Cheke and Jansen (2016). Ibis: https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.12673

McGowan, R.Y., Dougall, T.W, & Collinson, J.M. 2018. The first Scottish record of ‘Continental Cormorant’. Scottish Birds 38: 136–138.

McGowan, R.Y. on behalf of BOURC. 2015. The BOURC review of the 1869 specimen of American Goshawk from Perthshire. Scottish Birds 35: 300–310.