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The History of North American Bird Names

Members of the American Ornithologists' Union
Committee on Classification and Nomenclature
1886 - 2024


Brief biographical data below -- * deceased prior to publication
1886
1895
1910
1931
J. A. Allen J. A. Allen J. A. Allen Jonathan Dwight
William Brewster William Brewster William Brewster Joseph Grinnell
Elliott Coues Elliott Coues Elliott Coues Waldron DeWitt Miller*
H. W. Henshaw H. W. Henshaw C. Hart Merriam Harry C. Oberholser
Robert Ridgway Robert Ridgway Robert Ridgway T. S. Palmer
      James L. Peters
      Charles W. Richmond
      Witmer Stone
      Alexander Wetmore
      John T. Zimmer

Brief biographical data below -- * deceased prior to publication
1957
1983
1998
2000 --
Dean Amadon Richard C. Banks Richard C. Banks Richard C. Banks
Herbert Friedmann Eugene Eisenmann* John W. Fitzpatrick Carla Cicero
Frederick C. Lincoln Thomas R. Howell Thomas R. Howell Jon L. Dunn
George H. Lowery, Jr. Ned K. Johnson Ned K. Johnson Andrew W. Kratter
Alden H. Miller Burt L. Monroe, Jr. Burt L. Monroe, Jr. Henri Ouellet*
James L. Peters* Kenneth C. Parkes Henri Ouellet Pamela C. Rasmussen
Frank A. Pitelka Lester L. Short J. V. Remsen, Jr. J. V. Remsen, Jr.
Adriaan J. van Rossem* Robert W. Storer Robert W. Storer James A. Rising
Josselyn Van Tyne*     Douglas F. Stotz
Alexander Wetmore      
John T. Zimmer*      



Allen, J. A.   Curator of Birds, Museum of Comparative Zoology, American Museum of Natural History; Editor of the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club; Cofounder of A.O.U. and first editor of The Auk.

Amadon, Dean   President, A.O.U. (1964-1966); American Museum of Natural History, New York; Coauthor with Leslie Brown of Eagles, Hawks and Falcons of the World, Country Life Books, 1968.

Banks, Richard C.   President of A.O.U. (1994-1996); USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Biological Survey Project, National Museum of Natural History; President of the Wilson Ornithological Society, (1991-1993); Author of  Obsolete English Names of North American Birds and Their Modern Equivalents

Brewster, William   Cofounder, Nuttall Ornithological Club and A.O.U.; Honorary Curator of Birds, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard; Author of Birds of the Cambridge Region, 1906..

Cicero, Carla   Curator, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley; Author of Sibling Species of Titmice in the Parus inornatus Complex, University of California Publications, Zoology, Vol. 128; Coauthor with N. K. Johnson of Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Variability in Two Species of Sparrows of the Genus Amphispiza, Proc. 20th Int. Ornithol. Congr., pp. 600-10, 1990.

Coues, Elliott   Cofounder of A.O.U.; Surgeon, United States Army; Author of A Checklist of North American Birds, 1873, and Key to North American Birds, 5 editions in 2 vols., 1872-1903.

Dunn, Jon L.   Chief Consultant for the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, 3 editions, 1983-1999.

Dwight, Jonathan   Pesident (1899-1921) Linnaean Society of New York; Author of Sequence of Plumage and Moults of the Passerine Birds of New York, Annals New York Academy of Sciences (8), 1900.

Eisenmann, Eugene   President, Linnaean Society of New York; Research Associate, American Museum of Natural History; Member, International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature; Author of The Species of Middle American Birds, Trans. Linn. Soc. N.Y. 7:1-128, 1955; Editor (1958-59) of The Auk.

Fitzpatrick, Jown W.   Bird Division, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago;

Friedmann, Herbert   President of A.O.U. (1938-39); Curator, Division of Birds, U. S. National Museum; Author of The Cowbirds: A Study in the Biology of Social Parasitism, C. C. Thomas, 1929.

Grinnell, Joseph   Director, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and Professor of Zoology, University of California, Berkeley; Editor of The Condor; Coauthor with A. H. Miller of The Distribution of the Birds of California.

Henshaw, H. W.   Cofounder of A.O.U.; Ornithologist of the George Wheeler Geographic Survey West of the 100th Meridian; Author of The Game Birds of North America, pp. 113-177, in Grosvenor, G. (ed.). The Book of Birds National Geographic Society, 1925.

Howell, Thomas R.   President, A.O.U. (1982-1984); Coauthor of Checklist of Birds of the World, Vol. 14, Mus. Comp. Zool., 1968.

Johnson, Ned K.   President, A.O.U. (1996-1998); Professor of Ornithology and Evolutionary Biology, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley; Coauthor with C. Cicero of Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Variability in Two Species of Sparrows of the Genus Amphispiza, Proc. 20th Int. Ornithol. Congr., pp. 600-10, 1990.

Kratter, Andrew W.   Senior Biological Scientist, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville; Author fo Montane Avian Biogeography in Southern California and Baja California, J. Biogeography 19: 269-283, 1992.

Lincoln, Frederick C.   Director, Bird Banding Office, Biological Survey, U. S. Department of Agriculture; Bird Banding, in Chapman & Palmer, Eds., Fifty Years' Progress in American Ornithology, 1883-1933, A.O.U.; Author of Migration of Birds, 1935, (revised by Steven R. Peterson).

Lowery, Jr., George H.   Professor of Zoology and Director, Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science, Baton Rouge; President of A.O.U. (1959-1961); Coauthor of Checklist of Birds of the World, Vol. 14, Mus. Comp. Zool., 1968; Author of Louisiana Birds, 3 editions, Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1955-1974.

Merriam, C. Hart   Cofounder of A.O.U. and Secretary-Treasurer; Director, Division of Biological Survey, U. S. Department of Agriculture; Author of Review of the Birds of Connecticut, with Remarks on their Habits, Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences Transactions 4:1-150, 1882.

Miller, Alden H.   Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and Professor of Zoology, University of California, Berkeley; Member, National Academy of Sciences.

Miller, Waldron DeWitt   Associate Curator of Ornithology, American Museum of Natural History, New York; Cofounder, New Jersey Audubon Society. Coauthor with A. Wetmore of The Revised Classification for the Fourth Edition of the A.O.U. Check-list, 1926.

Monroe, Jr., Burt L.   Chairman, Biology Department of University of Louisville; President (1990-1992) of the A.O.U.; Coauthor with Charles G. Sibley of Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World, Yale 1990.

Oberholser, Harry C.   Curator, Division of Birds, U. S. National Museum. Author of The Bird Life of Louisiana, Louisiana Department of Conservation Bulletin 28, 834 pp., 1938.

Ouellet, Henri   National Museum of Natural Sciences, National Museums of Canada, Ottawa; Author of Les Oiseaux de l'ile Anticosti, Province de Quebec, Canada, National Museum of Natural Sciences Publications in Zoology 1, 78 pp., 1969.

Palmer, T. S.   Secretary, A.O.U.; Chief Assistant, Bureau of Biological Survey, U.S. Department of Agriculture; Coeditor with Frank Chapman of Fifty Years' Progress of American Ornithology, 1883-1933, Amer. Ornith. Union, 1933.

Parkes, Kenneth C.   Curator of Birds, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh; Coauthor with E. C. Dickinson and R. S. Kennedy of Birds of the Philippines (1991).

Peters, James L.   Curator of Birds, Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College; Author of Checklist of Birds of the World, 7 vols., Harvard Univ. Press, 1931-1952.

Pitelka, Frank A.   Professor of Ecology, Dept. of Integrative Biology, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley; Fellows' Medalist, California Academy of Science;

Rasmussen, Pamela C.   Research Ornithologist, National Museum of Natural History; Coauthor with F. R. Lambert of A New Scops Owl from Sangihe Island, Indonesia. Bull.Brit. Ornith. Club 118(4):204-217, 1998.

Remsen, Jr., J. V.   Museum of Zoology, Louisiana State Universityl Baton Rouge;

Richmond, Charles W.   Curator, Division of Birds, U. S. National Museum.

Ridgway, Robert   Cofounder of A.O.U.; Curator, Department of Ornithology, Smithsonian Museum; Coauthor with Herbert Friedmann, The Birds of Middle and North America, 11 vols., Govt. Printing Ofc., 1901-50.

Rising, James D.   Professor of Zoology, University of Toronto, Canada; Coauthor with David Beadle of Sparrows of the United States and Canada: A Photographic Guide, Academic Press, 2024.

Short, Lester L.   Chairman and Curator, Ornithology Department, American Museum of Natural History; Author of Woodpeckers of the World, Del. Mus. Nat. Hist. 1982.

Stone, Witmer   Curator of Birds, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia; Author of Bird Studies at Old Cape May: An Ornithology of Coastal New Jersey, 2 vols., Del. Val. Orn. Club, 1937.

Storer, Robert W.   President, A.O.U. (1970-1972); Editor of The Auk (1953-1957). Professor of Zoology and Curator of Birds, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Coauthor of Checklist of Birds of the World, Vol. 13, Mus. Comp. Zool., 1970. Author of The Metazoan Parasites of Grebes (Aves: Podicipediformes) and its Relationship to the Birds' Biology, Misc. Publ. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, No. 188, 2024.

Stotz, Douglas F.   Conservation Ecologist, Environmental and Conservation Programs, Field Museum of Natural History; Lecturer, Center for Evolutionary Biology, University of Chicago. Coauthor with Fitzpatrick, Parker and Moskovits of Neotropical Birds: Ecology and Conservation, University of Chicago Press, 1996.

van Rossem, Adriaan J.   Author of A Distributional Survey of the Birds of Sonora, Mexico, Mus. Zool. La. State Univ., 1945.

Van Tyne, Josselyn   President of A.O.U., Professor of Zoology and Curator of Birds, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, Anne Arbor; Coauthor with A. J. Berger of Fundamentals of Ornithology, New York, 1949. Editor of The Wilson Bulletin.

Wetmore, Alexander   Director, U. S. National Museum and Smithsonian Institution; President of A.O.U. (1926-1929); Coauthor with W. DeW. Miller of The Revised Classification for the Fourth Edition of the A.O.U. Check-list, 1926; Author of The Birds of the Republic of Panama, 1965-72 (Vol. 4 posthumous by associates).

Zimmer, John T.   Curator of Birds, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago; Coauthor of Checklist of Birds of the World, Vol. 8, Mus. Comp. Zool., 1979.

Sources

Barrow, Jr., Mark V., A Passion for Birds: American Ornithology After Audubon, Princeton University Press, 1998.



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AOUcommittee.htm  --  Updated 24 May, 2024   --   Send suggestions, corrections to Richard White