 Bell was awarded the Queens Service Medal, for public services in the 1984 Queen's Birthday Honours.He was a member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), and was elected a Fellow of the RAOU in 1990.He was president of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand (OSNZ) from 1972 to 1979, and again from 1989 to 1995.