The low cost and efficient CaO catalysts have been successfully prepared from chicken manure, by a simple calcination, in this present work. Chicken manure contains significant content of calcium compounds that can easily be converted into the active calcium oxide catalyst after calcination at 850 degrees C under air. The Hammett indicator test showed that the obtained CaO catalyst has the basic strength in a range of 15 < H_ < 18.4, revealing that the basicity of the obtained catalyst is mainly ascribed to the strong basic properties of metal-O groups. The obtained CaO catalyst exhibited high catalytic activity for biodiesel production from transesterification of waste cooking oil and methanol. Up to 90% FAME yield was obtained at optimum reaction condition (i.e. 7.5 wt% of catalyst, 15:1 of methanol:oil molar ratio and 65 degrees C). The experimental kinetic data fitted well with the pseudo-first order model and the activation energy was found to be 78.8 kJ mol(-1). Moreover, fuel properties of the produced biodiesel were determined according to the European standard and found to be within the specifications. The uses of chicken manure as a catalyst source and waste cooking oil as a raw material for biodiesel production not only offers the environmentally friendly and cost-effective way to recycle those wastes, but also help to lower the biodiesel production cost to make biodiesel competitive with petroleum-based diesel. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.