Christian Érard (May 25, 1939 – November, 16, 2023) was a French ecologist and

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

. Érard was born in Hennezel and became interested in the birds of the forests of his native

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; ; Franconian and ) is a range of medium mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single geomorphological unit and ...

. From 1956 to 1960, he completed his training at the École Normale Supérieure in Châlons-sur-Marne, during which time he worked at the Center for Research on the Migration of Mammals and Birds (CRMMO) at the National Museum of Natural History. In 1961, he became a professor, obtained the Certificate of Higher Studies in Science in Physics, Chemistry and Natural History (S.P.C.N.) at the University of Reims the same year and performed his military service from 1961 to 1963. He obtained certificates in general botany, plant biology and microbiology, as well as biology in Paris in 1963. The same year he was appointed professor in general secondary schools. In 1964, he became an assistant at the chair of zoology (mammals and birds) at the National Museum of Natural History, attached to the CRMMO. From 1966, he began a long series of trips abroad, which took him to many countries in Africa, the Middle East, Guyana, the United States and Canada. In 1975, he was appointed deputy head of the Department of Zoology (mammals and birds). In 1989, he received his PhD in Natural Sciences from the

University of Rennes 1 The University of Rennes 1 was a public university located in Rennes, France. It was founded in 1970, after splitting of the historic University of Rennes into two universities. On January 1, 2023, the University of Rennes 1 merged with five gra ...

with a thesis entitled "Socio-ecology of Muscicapinae in the forest regions of northeastern Gabon." In 1990, he was appointed professor. In 1998, he joined the Functioning, Evolution, and Regulatory Systems of Tropical Forest Ecosystems unit at the

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

. That same year, he became director of the General Laboratory of Ecology at the National Museum of Natural History. He focused on the study of bird migration and behavior in tropical regions (particularly in forests), plant-animal relationships, and avian systematics (including phylogeny and biogeography), with a particular focus on African and Neotropical passerines. He described the

Western red-billed hornbill The western red-billed hornbill (''Tockus kempi'') is a species of hornbill in the family Bucerotidae. It is found from Senegal and Gambia to southern Mauritania and western Mali. There are five species of red-billed hornbills generally recogniz ...

(''Tockus kempi'') along with Bernard Tréca, as well as several sub-species : * ''Glaucidium castaneum etchecopari'' of the African barred owlet * ''Mirafra gilletti degodiensis'' of Gillett's lark * ''Mirafra gilletti arorihensis'' * ''Apalis flavida abyssinica'' of the yellow-breasted apalis * ''Curruca lugens griseiventris '' of the brown parisoma

Bibliography

* Philippe Jaussaud, Édouard-Raoul Brygoo: ''Du Jardin au Muséum en 516 biographies''. Muséum national d’histoire naturelle de Paris, Open editions books, 2019, ISBN 978-2-85653-853-1 (E-Book-Version) 1939 births French ornithologists 2023 deaths {{France-bio-stub