BRUCE BEEHLER

Bruce Beehler is an ornithologist, ecologist, conservationist, author, and popular lecturer on natural history topics. He is currently a Research Associate in the Division of Birds at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Beehler has spent much of his scientific career studying and working to conserve the birds and their forest habitats. After conducting pre-doctoral and doctoral fieldwork in Papua New Guinea, Beehler worked for ten years at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, followed by stints at the Wildlife Conservation Society, U.S. Department of State, Counterpart International, Conservation International, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

 

Beehler is an elective Fellow of the American Ornithologists Union, and has served on the boards of RARE, the Livingston-Ripley Nature Conservancy, and American Bird Conservancy (ABC). In addition, Beehler served for three years as Chair of ABC’s Policy Council (predecessor to the Bird Conservation Alliance).

 

Today Beehler studies the avifauna of the Asia-Pacific region as well topical issues related to natural history in North America. In the recent past he has conducted research on the impact of climate change on forests, wildlife, and subsistence agriculture in the Pacific. Beehler is author or co-author of several natural history books, including Birdlife of the Adirondack Park (Adk Mt Club), Birds of New Guinea (Princeton), The Birds of Paradise (Oxford), A Naturalist in New Guinea (Texas), A Biodiversity Assessment for Papua New Guinea (Biodiversity Support Program), and The Ecology of Papua (Periplus). His most recent books, include Lost Worlds (Yale), a second edition of Birds of New Guinea (Princeton), and a taxonomic and distributional checklist of New Guinea birds (also Princeton).