John W. Fitzpatrick

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John Weaver Fitzpatrick
John Fitzpatrick Ornithologist .jpg
Fitzpatrick in conversation with Bangalore birdwatchers after a talk about bird conservation in January 2017 [1]
Born (1951-09-17) September 17, 1951 (age 72)
Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
Alma mater Harvard University
Occupation(s) Ornithology, Conservation
Employer Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Known forConservation of Florida Scrub Jay, eBird
Awards Brewster Medal, Eisenmann Medal
Website Message on Cornell Lab of Ornithology

John Weaver Fitzpatrick (born September 17, 1951, in Saint Paul, Minnesota [2] ) is an American ornithologist primarily known for his research work on the South America n avifauna and for the conservation of the Florida scrub jay. He is currently the Louis Agassiz Fuertes Director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York.

Contents

Early life

In 1974, Fitzpatrick graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a B.A. in biology. His early inspiration to work on Bird conservation came from a talk by John Terborgh and his travels in the summer of 1974 Manú National Park in south-eastern Peru. [3] His summer in Peru made him change his plans from pursuing graduate study in University of California, Berkeley. In 1978, he earned a Ph.D. in biology from Princeton University for his study of the foraging behaviour of tyrant flycatchers in Manu. [4]

Early ornithological career

After his PhD, he moved to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago as its curator. [5] In 1988, he left for Florida to take over as the executive director and senior research biologist at the Archbold Biological Station, a private ecological research foundation in central Florida. [5] Much of his early research focused upon neotropical avifauna. He travelled many times to remote areas of South America, in particular to the western Amazonian basin and to the Andean foothills. In 1996, he published Neotropical Birds: Ecology and Conservation, a comprehensive synthesis of ecological information of the region covering 4037 species of birds from Mexico south to Tierra del Fuego. [6] Along with other biologists, Fitzpatrick has described several species and sub-species new to science such as bar-winged wood wren, [7] cinnamon screech owl, [8] royal sunangel, [9] Manu antbird, [10] the cinnamon-breasted tody-tyrant, [11] and the cinnamon-faced tyrannulet. [12]

Conservation of the Florida Scrub Jay

Fitzpatrick's current research focuses on the ecology, conservation biology, and population genetics of the endangered Florida scrub jay, based on a nearly 50-year field study of a color-banded population since his work at Archbold biological station. [13] He began studying the species in 1972 with Glen Everett Woolfenden. In 1985, Fitzpatrick and Woolfenden earned a Brewster Medal for their long-term study, the highest research award given by the American Ornithologists' Union. [14] His work on this species has helped slow its decline. [15]

Other work on bird conservation

From 1995 to 2005, Fitzpatrick was on the board of trustees of The Nature Conservancy. [16] He has served on many professional ornithological committees, two species recovery teams (for the Hawaiian crow and the ivory-billed woodpecker), and advisory boards right up to the present. He has served on the National Audubon Society Board of Directors and has been the President of American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) from 2000 to 2002. [15] Under his leadership, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has become a global leader in public engagement with birds and bird conservation through widely accessed online resources such as Avian Knowledge Network and Citizen science platforms such as eBird. [15] Public data from the eBird platform is used worldwide to guide and plan conservation programmes, study climate change and study bird occurrence and migration patterns. [15] [17] [18]

Directorship at Cornell Lab of Ornithology

In 1995, Fitzpatrick became the Louis Agassiz Fuertes Director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York. He is also a professor in ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University. He continues to teach and mentor graduate and undergraduate students. [15]

Awards and achievements

In 2005, Fitzpatrick won the Eisenmann Medal from the Linnaean Society of New York. [15] In 2011, he was honored with the AOU's Marion A. Jenkinson Service Award, given in memory of Marion Anne Jenkinson (1937–1994), former AOU treasurer. For his achievements in the study of Peruvian birds and his guidance to a new generation of ornithologists, the newly described Sira barbet of Peru was named in his honor in 2012. [19] In 2016, in a rare instance, the American Ornithologists' Union awarded him a second time (after the Brewster Medal) with the Ralph W. Schreiber Conservation Award. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Ornithological Society</span> Society of professional ornithologists

The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its members are primarily professional ornithologists, although membership is open to anyone with an interest in birds. The society publishes the two scholarly journals, Ornithology and Ornithological Applications as well as the AOS Checklist of North American Birds. The American Ornithological Society claims the authority to establish standardized English bird names throughout North and South Americas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great crested flycatcher</span> Species of bird

The great crested flycatcher is a large insect-eating bird of the tyrant flycatcher family. It is the most widespread member of the genus Myiarchus in North America, and is found over most of the eastern and mid-western portions of the continent. It dwells mostly in the treetops and rarely is found on the ground.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canada warbler</span> Species of bird

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Gill (ornithologist)</span> American ornithologist

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fork-tailed flycatcher</span> Species of bird

The fork-tailed flycatcher is a passerine bird of the tyrant flycatcher family and is a member of a genus typically referred to as kingbirds. Named for their distinguishably long, forked tail, fork-tailed flycatchers are seen in lightly forested or grassland areas, from southern Mexico to south past Argentina. They are most frequently observed sitting on conspicuous perches waiting for flying arthropods to fly past, they then sally out, eat their prey, and return to their perches. Northern populations near southern Mexico tend to be permanent residents, while fork-tailed flycatchers that live further south are migrants with a reputation for wandering to as far north as New Brunswick, Canada.

Cocha Cashu Biological Station is a tropical biological research station located at 11° 54'S and 71° 22'W in Manú National Park, Peru. It was established in 1969-70, predating the founding of its containing national park. Though only 10 km2 in area, the site has provided valuable research. The station is situated on the shore of an oxbow lake, from which it takes its name. "Qucha" is the Quechua word for lake. "Cashu" is derived from the English word "cashew" and refers to the shape of the lake.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-eyed attila</span> Species of bird

The white-eyed attila or dull-capped attila is a species of bird in the passerine family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. They are found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and possibly Ecuador. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical swamps. It can be found at altitudes as high as 300 m (980 ft).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Terborgh</span>

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Dioscoro Siarot Rabor, also known as Joe Rabor, was a Filipino ornithologist, zoologist, and conservationist. Known as the "Father of Philippine Wildlife Conservation", he led more than 50 wildlife expeditions in the Philippines, authored 87 scientific papers and articles, and described 69 new bird taxa and numerous mammal species.

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References

  1. ↑ Gurung, Regina. "Can birds save the world?". The New Indian Express. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  2. ↑ The role of the research museums: hearing before the Task Force on Science Policy of the Committee on Science and Technology, House of Representatives, Ninety-ninth Congress, first session, April 17, 1985. United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science and Technology. Task Force on Science Policy U.S. G.P.O., 1986 p 133
  3. ↑ "Hooked on Peru: Lab Director John Fitzpatrick's Early Career in the Tropics". All About Birds. April 15, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  4. ↑ Fitzpatrick, John W. (January 1, 1980). "Foraging Behavior of Neotropical Tyrant Flycatchers". The Condor. 82 (1): 43–57. doi:10.2307/1366784. JSTOR   1366784.
  5. 1 2 "A True Believer". Harvard Magazine. March 1, 2007. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  6. ↑ Stotz, Douglas F. (June 1, 1996). Neotropical Birds: Ecology and Conservation . University of Chicago Press. ISBN   9780226776309.
  7. ↑ Fitzpatrick, John W.; Terborgh, John W.; Willard, David E. (1977). "A New Species of Wood-Wren from Peru". Auk. 94 (2 (April–June)): 195–201.
  8. ↑ "Overview - Cinnamon Screech-Owl (Megascops petersoni) - Neotropical Birds". neotropical.birds.cornell.edu. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  9. ↑ Fitzpatrick, John W.; Willard, David E.; Terborgh, John W. (January 1, 1979). "A New Species of Hummingbird from Peru". The Wilson Bulletin. 91 (2): 177–186. JSTOR   4161199.
  10. ↑ "Cercomacra manu, a new species of antbird from Southwestern Amazonia". The Auk. 107 (2). ISSN   0004-8038.
  11. ↑ Fitzpatrick, John W.; O'Neill, John P. (January 1, 1979). "A New Tody-Tyrant from Northern Peru". The Auk. 96 (3): 443–447. JSTOR   4085540.
  12. ↑ "A New Species of Tyrannulet (Phylloscartes) from the Andean Foothills of Peru and Bolivia". ResearchGate. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  13. ↑ "John Fitzpatrick | Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Cornell Arts & Sciences". ecologyandevolution.cornell.edu. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  14. ↑ The Auk, Vol 103, No. 2, 1986 Brewster Award, 1985 (PDF; 171 kB)
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Ralph W. Schreiber Conservation Award 2016, to John Fitzpatrick". The Auk. 134 (1): 279–280. January 1, 2017. doi: 10.1642/AUK-16-233.1 . ISSN   0004-8038.
  16. ↑ "Former Board Members | The Nature Conservancy". www.nature.org. Archived from the original on July 2, 2016. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  17. ↑ Hurlbert, Allen H.; Liang, Zhongfei (February 22, 2012). "Spatiotemporal Variation in Avian Migration Phenology: Citizen Science Reveals Effects of Climate Change". PLOS ONE. 7 (2): e31662. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...731662H. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031662 . ISSN   1932-6203. PMC   3285173 . PMID   22384050.
  18. ↑ "Publications | eBird". ebird.org. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  19. ↑ "New Species Discovered by Cornell Grads, Named for Cornell Lab Director". All About Birds. July 15, 2012. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
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