John Douglas Gibson ( – 21 May 1984) was an Australian amateur

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 ...

who became an internationally respected expert on the

Diomedeidae Albatrosses, of the biological family (biology), family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariidae, procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the So ...

albatross Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Paci ...

family. Gibson lived in Thirroul, New South Wales all his life, and worked at the nearby

Port Kembla A port is a maritime law, maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge Affreightment, cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inla ...

steelworks. Doug Gibson's interest in ornithology soon focused on

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

s, and from 1953 he was involved in banding at the seabird colonies at the

Five Islands Nature Reserve The Five Islands Nature Reserve is a protected nature reserve located in the Tasman Sea, off the Illawarra east coast of the state of New South Wales, Australia. The reserve comprises five continental islands that are situated between east of ...

. This led to experiments with banding albatrosses and the first successful program of banding them away from their breeding sites. This led in turn to the formation of the

New South Wales Albatross Study Group The New South Wales Albatross Study Group (NSWASG) was an amateur ornithological fieldwork group that banded albatrosses and other seabirds off the coast of eastern New South Wales, Australia. Primarily targeting winter feeding aggregations of ...

. With others in the group he devised the

Gibson Plumage Index The Gibson Plumage Index (GPI), sometimes known as the Gibson Code, is a system for describing the plumage of great albatrosses. It is named after, and originally devised in the late 1950s by, John Douglas Gibson and other members of the New S ...

, which is named after him, as an aid to categorising and identifying the various

great albatross The great albatrosses are seabirds in the genus ''Diomedea'' in the albatross family (biology), family. The genus ''Diomedea'' formerly included all albatrosses except the sooty albatrosses, but in 1996 the genus was split, with the mollymawks a ...

es. He is also commemorated in the name of

Gibson's albatross Gibson's Albatross (''Diomedea antipodensis gibsoni''), also known as the Auckland Islands wandering albatross or Gibson's wandering albatross, is a large seabird in the great albatross group of the albatross family. It is found principally in th ...

, a subspecies of the

wandering albatross The snowy albatross (''Diomedea exulans''), also known as the wandering albatross, white-winged albatross, or goonie, is a large seabird from the family Diomedeidae Albatrosses, of the biological family (biology), family Diomedeidae, are la ...

''Diomedea exulans'', though sometimes treated as a full species, ''Diomedea gibsoni''. Gibson was a member of the

Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), now part of BirdLife Australia, was Australia's largest non-government, non-profit, bird conservation organisation. It was founded in 1901 to promote the study and conservation of the native b ...

(RAOU) for 35 years, and he contributed many papers to its journal, the ''

Emu The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the genus ''Dromaius'' and the ...

'', and other journals. He also served on the

Barren Grounds Bird Observatory The Barren Grounds Bird Observatory was a bird observatory situated in the Barren Grounds Nature Reserve on the escarpment of the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia. It was opened in 1982 by Birds Australia as Australia's third bir ...

management committee and was instrumental in establishing the

Illawarra Bird Observers Club The Illawarra is a coastal region in the southeast of the Australian state of New South Wales. It is situated immediately south of Sydney and north of the South Coast region. It encompasses the two cities of Wollongong, Shellharbour and the co ...

in 1977.

References

Australian ornithologists 1920s births 1984 deaths 20th-century Australian zoologists {{Australia-ornithologist-stub