Robert Berkeley Payne is an ornithologist, professor and curator at the

Museum of Zoology The Museum of Zoology () of National Taiwan University (NTU) is a museum about zoology at the NTU main campus in Da'an District, Taipei, Taiwan. History The museum was originally established in 1928 during the Japanese rule. In the early days ...

and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology,

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

Academic background

Payne had completed his B.S. at the

in 1960, and Ph.D. at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

(Berkeley) in 1965. He was awarded an NSF postdoctoral fellowship by the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

. He was awarded the 2010

Margaret Morse Nice Medal The Margaret Morse Nice Medal is an ornithological award made annually by the Wilson Ornithological Society (WOS). It was established in 1997 and named in honour of ornithologist Margaret Morse Nice (1883–1974). The medal recipient is expecte ...

by the

Wilson Ornithological Society The Wilson Ornithological Society (WOS) is an ornithological organization that was formally established in 1886 as the Wilson Ornithological Chapter of the Agassiz Association. It is based at the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, Ann A ...

Fields of study

Payne is an expert in

behavioral ecology Behavioral ecology, also spelled behavioural ecology, is the study of the evolutionary basis for ethology, animal behavior due to ecology, ecological pressures. Behavioral ecology emerged from ethology after Niko Tinbergen outlined Tinbergen's f ...

and

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

bird song Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs (often simply ''birdsong'') are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs (relatively complex vocalization ...

and

systematics Systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: phylogenetic trees, phylogenies). Phy ...

. He has done fieldwork in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

for 2 years,

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

for three years, and in

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

for 20 years.

Publications

Some notable publications: * 1983 - ''A distributional checklist of the birds of Michigan'' * 2003 - ''Museum collections as sources of genetic data'' * 2005 - ''The Cuckoos, Birds Families of the World'' * 2005 - ''The Birds of Africa''

References

* http://www.eeb.lsa.umich.edu/eeb/people/rbpayne/index.html * https://www.amazon.com/Cuckoos-Bird-Families-World/dp/0198502133/sr=1-1/qid=1170751790/ref=sr_1_1/105-6820948-6490041?ie=UTF8&s=books {{DEFAULTSORT:Payne, Robert B. American ornithologists Year of birth missing (living people) University of Michigan alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Michigan faculty Living people