Bruce Beehler

Last updated
Bruce Beehler
Beehler winter portrait.jpg
BornOctober 11, 1951
Baltimore
OccupationOrnithology
NationalityAmerican
Alma materWilliams College,
Princeton University
Genrenon-fiction

Bruce M. Beehler (born October 11, 1951, in Baltimore) is an ornithologist and research associate of the Bird Division of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. Prior to this appointment, Beehler worked for Conservation International, the Wildlife Conservation Society, Counterpart International, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Contents

Life

Beehler with a snake in a Papuan rainforest (photo from State Magazine) Bruce Beehler, State Magazine 1997-06- Iss 406 (IA sim state-magazine 1997-06 406) (page 29 crop).jpg
Beehler with a snake in a Papuan rainforest (photo from State Magazine )

Bruce Beehler graduated from Williams College and received his master's degree and PhD studying the behavioral ecology of the birds-of-paradise at Princeton University. [1]

He has been an authority on New Guinea birds for several decades, having authored or co-authored several major works on the biodiversity this, the largest tropical island, including The Birds of Paradise (1998), The Birds of New Guinea (1986, 2015) and the two-volume Ecology of Papua (2007).

To the general public, Beehler is best known for having co-led a widely published rapid assessment survey on biological diversity in 2005 to the Foja Mountains, Papua, where he, together with an international team of 11 scientists, the majority from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), made a number of scientific discoveries.

The findings on this survey expanded on previous research conducted in the region by Dr. Jared Diamond in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Beehler and colleagues, however, returned with the first ever photographs of two species of birds, the bronze parotia (Parotia berlepschi) and the golden-fronted bowerbird (Amblyornis flavifrons), that previously were known only from a few specimens. Additionally, a previously unknown species of honeyeater was discovered, it being scientifically described in 2007 as the wattled smoky honeyeater (Melipotes carolae). The specific epithet, carolae, commemorates Carol Beehler, the wife of Bruce Beehler. Together with a team from 60 Minutes , Beehler returned to the Foja Mountains in 2007, resulting in the first ever filming of several of the species discovered in 2005, as well as encounters with an undescribed giant rat ( Mallomys sp.) and a tiny pygmy possum ( Cercartetus sp.).

Works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Honeyeater</span> Family of birds

The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family, Meliphagidae, of small to medium-sized birds. The family includes the Australian chats, myzomelas, friarbirds, wattlebirds, miners and melidectes. They are most common in Australia and New Guinea, and found also in New Zealand, the Pacific islands as far east as Samoa and Tonga, and the islands to the north and west of New Guinea known as Wallacea. Bali, on the other side of the Wallace Line, has a single species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foja Mountains</span>

The Foja Mountains are located just north of the Mamberamo river basin in Papua, Indonesia. The mountains rise to 2,193 metres (7,195 ft), and have 3,000 square kilometers of old growth tropical rainforest in the interior part of the range. The Foja forest tract covers 9,712 square kilometers and is the largest tropical forest without roads in the Asia Pacific region.

The bronze parotia, also known as the Foja parotia, Berlepsch's parotia or Berlepsch's six-wired bird-of-paradise, is a species of bird-of-paradise, in the family Paradisaeidae. It resembles and is often considered to be a subspecies of Carola's parotia, but a high majority of authorities support its specific status.

<i>Epimachus</i> Genus of birds

Epimachus is a genus of birds-of-paradise (Paradisaeidae) that includes two species, found in the highland forests of New Guinea. They are the largest members of the family. The common name "sicklebill" refers to their long, decurved, sickle-shaped bill.

<i>Diphyllodes</i> Genus of birds

Diphyllodes is a genus of birds-of-paradise. Established by René-Primevère Lesson in 1834, it contains two species: the magnificent bird-of-paradise and Wilson's bird-of-paradise. Both species are endemic to New Guinea, where they are found in forested uplands. The genus is sometimes subsumed into the genus Cicinnurus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnificent bird-of-paradise</span> Species of bird

The magnificent bird-of-paradise is a species of bird-of-paradise. The magnificent bird-of-paradise is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. They are listed on Appendix II of CITES.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MacGregor's honeyeater</span> Species of bird

MacGregor's honeyeater also known as giant wattled honeyeater, MacGregor's giant honeyeater, MacGregor's bird of paradise, and ochre-winged honeyeater, is a large black crow-like bird with large orange-yellow eye-wattles and black-tipped, ochre primary wing feathers. The sexes are similar, with the male being slightly larger than the female. It is the only member of the genus Macgregoria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wattled smoky honeyeater</span> Species of bird

The wattled smoky honeyeater or Foja honeyeater is a species of honeyeater with a sooty-grey plumage and a black bill. The most distinctive feature is arguably the extensive reddish-orange facial skin and pendulous wattle. In other members of the genus Melipotes, these sections only appear reddish when "flushed" and the wattle is smaller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biak paradise kingfisher</span> Species of bird

The Biak paradise kingfisher is a tree kingfisher that is endemic to the Indonesian island of Biak which is one of a small group of islands located in Cenderawasih Bay near the northern coast of Papua. This bird has a turquoise-blue back with a white belly and tail streamers and a reddish beak. Its natural habitat is forests and the IUCN has assessed its conservation status as being "near-threatened".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kofiau paradise kingfisher</span> Species of bird

The Kofiau paradise kingfisher is a tree kingfisher belonging to the family Alcedinidae, subfamily Halcyoninae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orange-bellied fruit dove</span> Species of bird

The orange-bellied fruit dove is a small pigeon with mainly green plumage, distinguished by a large orange patch on the lower breast and belly, a small lilac shoulder patch, pale yellow undertail coverts, and a grey terminal band on the tail.

The Papuan spine-tailed swift, also known as the Papuan needletail, New Guinea spine-tailed swift or Papua spinetail, is a small, stocky swift with a short, rounded tail and very fast flight. Head and upperparts glossy blue-black, white or whitish belly and undertail coverts, dark underwing with pale central stripe. The small spines at the end of the tail are not visible in flight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Streak-headed mannikin</span> Species of bird

The streak-headed mannikin also known as the streak-headed munia, is a small 10 cm (3.9 in) long estrildid finch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Singing starling</span> Species of bird

The singing starling is a medium-sized starling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uniform swiftlet</span> Species of bird

The uniform swiftlet,, also known as the Vanikoro swiftlet or lowland swiftlet, is a gregarious, medium-sized swiftlet with a shallowly forked tail. The colouring is dark grey-brown, darker on the upperparts with somewhat paler underparts, especially on chin and throat. This species is widespread from the Philippines through Wallacea, New Guinea and Melanesia. It forages for flying insects primarily in lowland forests and open areas. It nests in caves where it uses its sense of echolocation, rare in birds, to navigate.

The Wau Ecology Institute (WEI) was established in 1961 near the town of Wau, Papua New Guinea, in Morobe province, as a field station of the Bishop Museum. In 1973 it became an independent environmental organisation. It has laboratory space for visiting scientists, a herbarium and zoological reference collections. The Institute ceased operations around 2007 and is now run as a local coffee plantation by former employees and area gold miners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red-chinned lorikeet</span> Species of bird

The red-chinned lorikeet is a species of parrot in the family Psittaculidae. It is native to New Britain, New Ireland, New Hannover and Karkar Island in Papua New Guinea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greater ground robin</span> Species of songbird native to New Guinea

The greater ground robin is a species of bird in the family Petroicidae. It is found in New Guinea.

Stresemann's bird-of-paradise is a bird in the family Paradisaeidae that is an intergeneric hybrid between a Queen Carola's parotia and greater lophorina.

Schodde's bird of paradise is a bird in the family Paradisaeidae that is an intergeneric hybrid between a Lawes's parotia and blue bird-of-paradise.

References

  1. "Bruce M. Beehler | Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History". naturalhistory.si.edu. Retrieved 2019-07-22.