Elliott Ladd Coues was an American army surgeon, historian, ornithologist, and author. He led surveys of the Arizona Territory, and later as secretary of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories. He founded the American Ornithological Union in 1883, and was editor of its publication, The Auk.
Robert Ridgway was an American ornithologist specializing in systematics. He was appointed in 1880 by Spencer Fullerton Baird, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, to be the first full-time curator of birds at the United States National Museum, a title he held until his death. In 1883, he helped found the American Ornithologists' Union, where he served as officer and journal editor. Ridgway was an outstanding descriptive taxonomist, capping his life work with The Birds of North and Middle America. In his lifetime, he was unmatched in the number of North American bird species that he described for science. As technical illustrator, Ridgway used his own paintings and outline drawings to complement his writing. He also published two books that systematized color names for describing birds, A Nomenclature of Colors for Naturalists (1886) and Color Standards and Color Nomenclature (1912). Ornithologists all over the world continue to cite Ridgway's color studies and books.
Joel Asaph Allen was an American zoologist, mammalogist, and ornithologist. He became the first president of the American Ornithologists' Union, the first curator of birds and mammals at the American Museum of Natural History, and the first head of that museum's Department of Ornithology. He is remembered for Allen's rule, which states that the bodies of endotherms vary in shape with climate, having increased surface area in hot climates to lose heat, and minimized surface area in cold climates, to conserve heat.
The International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) is an international organization for the promotion of ornithology. It links basic and applied research and nurtures education and outreach activities. Specifically, the IOU organizes and funds global congresses on ornithology at regular intervals, sets up and supports commissions and committees on various aspects of avian biology and conservation, and initiates and backs other international ornithological activities with specific aims consistent with its own mission and goal. It discloses the names and professional affiliations of its members on its website to encourage international collaboration and networking. The IOU acts as the Ornithology Section of the IUBS.
William Brewster was an American ornithologist. He co-founded the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and was an early naturalist and conservationist.
Witmer Stone was an American ornithologist, botanist, and mammalogist, and was considered one of the last of the “great naturalists.” Stone is remembered principally as an ornithologist. He was president of the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) 1920–23, and was editor of the AOU's periodical The Auk 1912–1936. He spearheaded the production of the 4th edition of the AOU checklist, published in 1931. He worked for over 50 years in the Ornithology Department at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, eventually serving as Director of the institution. Stone was one of the founding members of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club (DVOC) in 1890 and was actively involved in the organization for the remainder of his life. Stone was one of only two scientists to serve as president of both the AOU and the American Society of Mammalogists, and he co-authored two popular books about mammals. His outstanding botanical contribution was The Plants of Southern New Jersey, published in 1911. Stone spent many summers at Cape May, New Jersey, summering there annually starting in 1916. He is best remembered for his two-volume classic Bird Studies at Old Cape May, which was published by the DVOC in 1937, two years before his death.
The Cooper Ornithological Society (COS), formerly the Cooper Ornithological Club, was an American ornithological society. It was founded in 1893 in California and operated until 2016. Its name commemorated James Graham Cooper, an early California biologist. It published the ornithological journal The Condor and the monograph series Studies in Avian Biology. It presented the annual Loye and Alden Miller Research Award, which is given for lifetime achievement in ornithological research and was a member of the Ornithological Council.
Robert Eric Ricklefs is an American ornithologist and ecologist. He was the Curators' Professor of Biology at the University of Missouri, St. Louis from 1996 until August 2019.
The William Brewster Memorial Award, usually referred to as the Brewster Medal, is awarded by the American Ornithologists' Union and is named for ornithologist William Brewster. It is given to an author, or coauthors who are not previous recipients, of an exceptional body of work on Western Hemisphere birds. The award comprises a medal and an honorarium provided through the William Brewster Memorial Fund. Established in 1919, the award was first given in 1921, to Robert Ridgway. From 1921 to 1937, it was given biennially; since then it has usually been made annually.
The AOS Checklist of North American Birds is a checklist of the bird species found in North and Middle America which is now maintained by the American Ornithological Society (AOS). The checklist was originally published by the AOS's predecessor, the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). The Union merged with the Cooper Ornithological Society in 2016 to form the American Ornithological Society. The checklist was first published in 1886; the seventh edition of the checklist was published in 1998 and is now updated every year by an open-access article published in the Ibis. Seven editions and 54 supplements have been published in the last 127 years. According to Joel Asaph Allen, the Codes of Nomenclature set out in the first edition of the Checklist "later became the basis of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, framed on essentially the same lines and departing from it in no essential respect, except in point of brevity, through omission of adequate illustrations of the rules, and thereby rendering necessary the issuance of official 'Opinions' to clear up obscure points."
Nicholas Barry Davies is a British field naturalist and zoologist, and Emeritus Professor of Behavioural Ecology at the University of Cambridge, where he is also a Emeritus Fellow of Pembroke College.
Eugene "Gene" Eisenmann was an American and Panamanian lawyer and amateur ornithologist of German-Jewish ancestry. He had a long association with the Linnaean Society of New York (LSNY) as well as with the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). He was an expert on Neotropical birds.
John Weaver Fitzpatrick is an American ornithologist primarily known for his research work on the South American 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.
Leiothlypis is a genus of New World warbler, formerly classified within the genus Oreothlypis or Vermivora.
James Vanderbeek "Van" Remsen Jr. is an American ornithologist. His main research field is the Neotropical avifauna. In 1999, he founded the South American Classification Committee. In 2013, he was honored with the Brewster Medal of the American Ornithologists' Union.
Kathy Martin is a Canadian ornithologist who is an expert on arctic and alpine grouse and ptarmigan, and on tree cavity-nesting vertebrates. She is a professor in the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia and was a senior research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Brina Cattell Kessel was an American ornithologist.
Thomas Bates Smith is an American evolutionary and conservation biologist. His research focuses on rainforest biodiversity, species evolution in human-altered environments, the ecology of animal and human diseases, wildlife trafficking, migratory bird conservation, and the development of new approaches for mitigating the impacts of climate change.
Bird Names for Birds is a campaign to change the common names of American birds named after people, and to redress the recognition in ornithology of figures with racist or colonial pasts. Launched in June 2020 by ornithologists Jordan E. Rutter and Gabriel Foley with a public petition, in the midst of the George Floyd protests and in the aftermath of an incident in Central Park that paved the way to Black Birders Week, the movement emerged after several years of social activism by multiple American ornithologists and birders, many of whom are not affiliated with Bird Names for Birds but remain devoted to the cause. The inaugural petition, dated June 22, 2020, and co-signed by 182 individuals, urged the American Ornithological Society (AOS) to "acknowledge the issue of eponymous and honorific common names, to outline a plan to change harmful common names, and to prioritize the implementation of this plan". In 2023, the AOS formally announced that it would change all English-language bird names that are named directly after people.
