Killian Mullarney is an Irish ornithologist, bird artist [1] and bird tour leader. [2] He designed a series of Irish definitive stamps for An Post illustrating Irish birds [3] issued between 1997 and 2004.
He was born in Dublin in 1958, [4] and educated at home for a few years by his mother, Máire Mullarney. He showed an interest in birds from an early age, including bird art, and began to make a name for himself in the late 1970s. Due to his keen interest in bird identification, he served as a member of the Irish Rare Birds Committee [2] from 1980 to 2008, and serves as an identification consultant to many birding journals, including Birding World and Alula . He also wrote an influential series of articles with Peter J. Grant for Birding World which were later produced independently as 'The 'New Approach to Identification'. [2]
He was jointly responsible, with Dan Zetterström for illustrating the Collins Bird Guide , which was written by Lars Svensson and Peter J. Grant [2] and has been described by Birding World as "undoubtedly the finest field guide that has ever been produced", and "the last great bird book of the 20th century". [5]
He now lives in Ireland with his wife, Cornelia and children, Helena, Sophia and Anna. They also have 2 dogs.