Marc Parnell | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Greenville, North Carolina |
| Occupation | Author, ornithologist, photographer |
| Nationality | American |
| Subject | Birds |
| Notable works | The Birding Pro's Field Guides |
| Website | |
| www | |
Marc Parnell is an ornithologist, author, and wildlife photographer. He is best known for The Birding Pro's Field Guides, a series of photographic identification guides to the birds of North America, and is the second-most published ornithologist in the world, based on books in active print. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Parnell was born in Greenville, North Carolina, where the immediate proximity of his childhood home to the banks of the Tar River fostered an early love of nature. [5] [6] These seeds of childhood curiosity began to take greater root after a move to the city of Jamestown, New York, the birthplace of American naturalist Roger Tory Peterson. [7] Parnell cites Peterson among his early influences, having received a green, fabric-bound Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians on the occasion of his fourth birthday. [8] [9] After several additional moves, Parnell spent his teenage years in small-town Pennsylvania before attending Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where he would eventually reside. [10] [11]
During his time away from home, Parnell had arranged a set of bird feeders in his mother's backyard to serve as a regular topic of conversation, and eventually composed a short, 20-page guide to the local birds that she would be most likely to observe. [12] [13] After having failed to identify a suitable, comprehensive replacement for his mother's booklet, he began to compose the framework of what would eventually become his collected series of field guides. [14] [15]
In early 2021 and 2022, Parnell released a series of 41 photographic bird-identification guides, The Birding Pro's Field Guides, several of which reached bestseller status in multiple countries. [2] [8] These field guides, which each focus on an individual state, city, or province, provide information specific to the local area; for instance, his first-of-their-kind monthly birding forecasts for each species give month-by-month values for local frequency and ease-of-finding. [14] [16] Parnell is known for also having pioneered the birding-by-comparison approach, which allows birders to identify new birds by comparing them to those which they already know, primarily by using size-based and behavioral categorizations. [15] [17] [18]
Parnell follows a multi-step approach to the writing process. Firstly, he locates and observes birds all throughout the calendar year, in a variety of different habitats and geographic locations, so as to best understand each species' evolving behaviors through the passing months. Secondly, he reflects and logs entries in a personal diary, placing emphasis on a contextualized "day-in-the-life" approach to each species. [19] [20] Finally, he uses data analysis to make wider conclusions and to inform the data presented in his final drafts. [21] In addition to the naturalist-specific works of Roger Tory Peterson, Parnell cites Herman Melville, Jack London, and Jorge Luis Borges as literary influences. [19]
Alongside his writing pursuits, Parnell is an educator and advocate for safe birding practices and the mitigation of bird-window collisions. [22] [23] [24] His favorite North American bird is the Rose-breasted Grosbeak. [10] Parnell currently lives in Cleveland, Ohio. [6] [17] [25]
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds. It has also been an area with a large contribution made by amateurs in terms of time, resources, and financial support. Studies on birds have helped develop key concepts in biology including evolution, behaviour and ecology such as the definition of species, the process of speciation, instinct, learning, ecological niches, guilds, island biogeography, phylogeography, and conservation.
Roger Tory Peterson was an American naturalist, ornithologist, illustrator and educator, and one of the founding inspirations for the 20th-century environmental movement.
The National Audubon Society is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organizations in the world. There are completely independent Audubon Societies in the United States, which were founded several years earlier such as the Massachusetts Audubon Society and Connecticut Audubon Society.
The tufted titmouse is a small songbird from North America, a species in the tit and chickadee family (Paridae). The black-crested titmouse, found from central and southern Texas southward, was included as a subspecies, but now is considered a separate species, Baeolophus atricristatus.
Guy Mountfort was an English advertising executive, amateur ornithologist and conservationist. He is known for writing the pioneering A Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe, published in 1954.
James Maxwell McConnell Fisher was a British author, editor, broadcaster, naturalist and ornithologist. He was also a leading authority on Gilbert White and made over 1,000 radio and television broadcasts on natural history subjects.
Clinton Hart Merriam was an American zoologist, mammalogist, ornithologist, entomologist, ecologist, ethnographer, geographer, naturalist and physician. He was commonly known as the 'father of mammalogy', a branch of zoology referring to the study of mammals.
Robert Allen Fitzwilliam Gillmor MBE was a British ornithologist, artist, illustrator, author, and editor. He was a co-founder of the Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA) and was its secretary, chairman and president. He contributed to over 100 books, and received numerous awards.
Richard Sidney Richmond Fitter was a British naturalist and author. He was an expert on wildflowers and authored several guides for amateur naturalists.
Florence Augusta Merriam Bailey was an American ornithologist, birdwatcher, and nature writer. Between 1890 and 1939, she published a series of field guides on North American bird life. These guides were often written with amateur birdwatchers in mind, leading to the popularity of the birding movement.
David Allen Sibley is an American ornithologist. He is the author and illustrator of The Sibley Guide to Birds, which rivals Roger Tory Peterson's as the most comprehensive guides for North American ornithological field identification.
Ludlow Griscom was an American ornithologist known as a pioneer in field ornithology. His emphasis on the identification of free-flying birds by field marks became widely adopted by professionals and amateurs. Many called him "Dean of the Birdwatchers."
Patrick James Lynch is an American author, artist, biomedical illustrator, and photographer. He lives in North Haven, Connecticut with his wife Susan E. Grajek. He has one daughter, Kathryn, and a son-in-law, Zubin.
Graham Martin Pizzey AM was a noted Australian author, photographer and ornithologist.
Alexander Frank Skutch was a naturalist and writer. He published numerous scientific papers and books about birds and several books on philosophy. He is best remembered ornithologically for his pioneering work on helpers at the nest.
The Peterson Identification System is a practical method for the field identification of animals, plants and other natural phenomena. It was devised by ornithologist Roger Tory Peterson in 1934 for the first of his series of Field Guides Peterson devised his system "so that live birds could be identified readily at a distance by their 'field marks' without resorting to the bird-in-hand characters that the early collectors relied on. During the last half century the binocular and the spotting scope have replaced the shotgun." As such, it both reflected and contributed to awareness of the emerging early environmental movement. Another application of this system was made when Roger Tory Peterson was enlisted in the US Army Corps of Engineers from 1943 to 1945. “...plane identification—the aircraft spotting technique—was based on Roger’s bird identification method-the Peterson system.”.
Scott Weidensaul is a Pennsylvania-based naturalist and author. He was a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction for his book Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere With Migratory Birds.
Bruce Campbell was an English ornithologist, writer and broadcaster, closely associated with the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).
Peter Slater was an Australian ornithologist, wildlife artist and photographer.
Chandler Seymour Robbins was an American ornithologist. His contributions to the field include co-authorship of an influential field guide to birds, as well as organizing the North American Breeding Bird Survey.