Ongoing events
John Gould was an English ornithologist who published monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter, Joseph Wolf and William Matthew Hart. He has been considered the father of bird study in Australia and the Gould League in Australia is named after him. His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" played a role in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Gould's work is referenced in Charles Darwin's book, On the Origin of Species.
Richard Bowdler Sharpe was an English zoologist and ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of natural history. In the course of his career he published several monographs on bird groups and produced a multi-volume catalogue of the specimens in the collection of the museum. He described many new species of bird and also has had species named in his honour by other ornithologists including Sharpe's longclaw and Sharpe's starling.
William Matthew Hart (1830-1908) was an Irish-born English bird illustrator and lithographer who worked for John Gould.
The year 1880 in birding and ornithology.
Ongoing events
Expeditions
Expeditions
Birds described in 1869 include Hartlaub's spurfowl, subantarctic shearwater, Himalayan vulture, Palani laughingthrush, Anchieta's barbet and the long-tailed myna.
Birds described in 1870 include Recurve-billed bushbird, Beautiful woodpecker, Philepittidae, Cantorchilus semibadius, Chinese barbet, White-naped seedeater, Belem curassow,
Birds described in 1872 include the Chilean flamingo, snowy egret, black-tailed crake, Cyprus warbler, Baikal bullfinch, Persian shearwater, red-fronted antpecker, Tibetan serin, Newton's parakeet and the orange fruit dove.
Birds described in 1873 include the white-browed tit-warbler, Bartlett's tinamou, Von Schrenck's bittern, Raggiana bird-of-paradise, spangled coquette, Sangihe hanging parrot and the white-crowned penduline tit.
Birds described in 1875 include the Anjouan sparrowhawk, Caucasian grouse, Nelson's sparrow, yellow-capped pygmy parrot, red-tailed shrike, spotted catbird, spectacled barwing, tit berrypecker, bridled honeyeater and Taczanowski's tinamou.
Birds described in 1876 include the tooth-billed bowerbird, Heuglin's gull, Chinese white-browed rosefinch, Sclater's crowned pigeon, Pohnpei flycatcher, mountain myzomela, streak-headed honeyeater and Maxwell's black weaver.
Birds described in 1877 include the giant ibis, black-and-yellow phainoptila, Cebu flowerpecker, Drakensberg prinia, Finsch's euphonia, lava heron, Manus friarbird, Palawan tit, plain-backed antpitta, rufous-fronted tailorbird and Walden's hornbill.
Birds described in 1879 include the grey-headed silverbill, Macquarie rail, flame bowerbird, Cockerell's fantail, rufous-vented niltava, slaty cuckooshrike, Makira dwarf kingfisher, black-billed turaco, dusky-backed jacamar, buff-bellied tanager and the Santa Marta sabrewing, Rodrigues starling.