Laurence Charles Binford

Laurence "Laurie" Charles Binford (born January 11, 1935 in Chicago , Illinois , † September 21, 2009 in Agate Harbor , Michigan ) was an American ornithologist . His research focus was the avifauna of Mexico .

Life

Binford began birdwatching as a child and kept written records from the age of seven. His interest was supported by his mother and by bird watchers from the Chicago area. After graduating from New Tier High School in Winnetka , Illinois in 1953, Binford studied at the University of Michigan , where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1957. He then went to Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge , Louisiana , where he conducted research under the direction of George Hines Lowery . Lowery intended to expand Louisiana State University's bird collection and preferred that his students pursue subjects that would further that end. The main focus was on Mexico and Central America . Binford conducted field studies in Oaxaca , Mexico, which served as the basis for his dissertation A preliminary survey of the avifauna of the Mexican state of Oaxaca in 1968.

From 1965 to 1973 Binford was assistant curator and then curator of birds and mammals at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park , San Francisco until his retirement in 1989 . In January 1970 he was one of the co-founders of the amateur ornithological organization California Field Ornithologists (Western Field Ornithologists since 1987), where he served as president from 1983 to 1986. From 1972 to 1976 he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Point Reyes Ornithological Institute . From 1978 to 1981 he was secretary of the Cooper Ornithological Society and from 1985 to 1992 a member of the checklist committee of the American Birding Association .

Binford's bibliography includes Birds of Western North America: Non-passerines (1974), the monograph A distributional survey of the birds of the Mexican State of Oaxaca (1989), and The Birds of the Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan (2006).

In 1965, Binford described the subspecies Dendrocolaptes sanctithomae sheffleri of the Mexico banded tree climber and the subspecies Rhynchocyclus brevirostris pallidus of the eye-ring broad-billed tyrant . In 1985 he and Thomas Scott Schulenberg described the green cap tangar ( Tangara meyerdeschauenseei ).

In 1954 Binford became a member of the American Ornithologists' Union .

Dedication names

In 1990 Robert W. Dickerman named the subspecies Grallaria guatimalensis binfordi of the throat banded ant pitta in honor of Binford.

literature

• Laurence Charles Binford. American Men & Women of Science: A Biographical Directory of Today's Leaders in Physical, Biological, and Related Sciences, Gale, 2008. Gale In Context: Biography, accessed August 27, 2019
• AOU Committee on Memorials: In Memoriam: Laurence Charles Binford: 1935–2009 The Auk 129 (4), 2012, p. 789
• Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins, Michael Grayson: The Eponym Dictionary of Birds. Bloomsbury Publishing 2014, p. 72 (short biography)

Web links

• Literature by and about Laurence Charles Binford in the WorldCat bibliographic database