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| # | Year | Location | President | Secretary-General |
| 1st | 1884 | Vienna, Austria | Dr. G.F.R. Radde | Dr. Gustav von Hayek |
| 2nd | 1891 | Budapest, Hungary | Prof. Victor Fatio, Otto Herman | none |
| 3rd | 1900 | Paris, France | Dr. Émile Oustalet | Jean de Claybrooke |
| 4th | 1905 | London, United Kingdom | R. Bowdler Sharpe | Dr. E.J.O. Hartert, J. Lewis Bonhote |
| 5th | 1910 | Berlin, Germany | Prof. Dr. Anton Reichenow | Herman Schalow |
| 6th | 1926 | Copenhagen, Denmark | Dr. E. J. O. Hartert | E. Lehn Schioler |
| 7th | 1930 | Amsterdam, Netherlands | Prof. A.J.E. Lönnberg | Prof. L.F. de Beaufort |
| 8th | 1934 | Oxford, United Kingdom | Prof. Erwin Stresemann | Rev. F.C.R. Jourdain |
| 9th | 1938 | Rouen, France | Prof. Alessandro Ghigi | Jean Delacour |
| 10th | 1950 | Uppsala, Sweden | Dr. Alexander Wetmore | Prof. Sven Hörstadius |
| 11th | 1954 | Basel, Switzerland | Sir Landsborough Thomson | Prof. Adolf Portmann |
| 12th | 1958 | Helsinki, Finland | Prof. J. Berlioz | Dr. Lars von Haartman |
| 13th | 1962 | Ithaca, NY, USA | Dr. Ernst Mayr | Dr. Charles G. Sibley |
| 14th | 1966 | Oxford, United Kingdom | Dr. David Lack | Prof. Nikolaas Tinbergen |
| 15th | 1970 | Den Haag, The Netherlands | 1966-1969: Prof. Nikolaas Tinbergen
1969-1970: Prof. Finn Salomonsen |
Prof. Karel H. Voous |
| 16th | 1974 | Canberra, Australia | Prof. Jean Dorst | Dr. H. J. Frith |
| 17th | 1978 | Berlin, Germany | Prof. D.S. Farner | Rolf Nöhring |
| 18th | 1982 | Moscow, Russia | Prof. Lars von Haartman | Prof. V. Ilyichev |
| 19th | 1986 | Ottawa, Canada | Prof. Dr. Klaus Immelmann | Dr. Henri Ouellet |
| 20th | 1990 | Christchurch, New Zealand | Dr. Charles G. Sibley | Dr. Benjamin D. Bell |
| 21st | 1994 | Vienna, Austria | Dr. Christopher Perrins | Dr. John Dittami |
| 22nd | 1998 | Durban, South Africa | Prof. Dr. Peter Berthold | Dr. Aldo Berruti |
| 23rd | 2002 | Beijing, China | Prof. Walter Bock | Dr. Wei-shu Xu |
| 24th | 2006 | Hamburg, Germany | Prof. Dr. Jacques Blondel | Prof. Dr. Franz Bairlein |
| 25th | 2010 | Campos do Jordão, Brazil | Prof.dr. John C[harteris] Wingfield | Dr. Cristina Yumi Miyaki |
