George Hines Lowery Jr. (October 2, 1913 – January 19, 1978) was an American ornithologist and professor of zoology at

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

, who pioneered a technique for studying nocturnal

bird migration Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south along a flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds. Many species of bird migrate. Migration carries high costs in predation and mortality, including from hunting by ...

by large-scale observation through telescopes across the United States of America of flocks of birds as they flew at night in front of the face of the moon. George was born in

Monroe, Louisiana Monroe (historically french: Poste-du-Ouachita) is the eighth-largest city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and parish seat of Ouachita Parish. With a 2020 census-tabulated population of 47,702, it is the principal city of the Monroe metropolita ...

, where his parents encouraged an interest in the natural world. He studied at

Louisiana Polytechnic Institute Louisiana Tech University (Louisiana Tech, La. Tech, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Ruston, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System and classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activi ...

in Ruston from 1930 to 1932 when he moved to the

at Baton Rouge. He received a BS in 1934 and an MS in 1936. He worked for a while as an instructor and was assistant curator of the Museum of Zoology. He received a PhD from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

in 1947 and returned to become a professor. In 1955 he was made Boyd Professor of Zoology. He published ''Louisiana Birds'' in 1955 which won the Louisiana Literary Award. He also made collection trips, some funded by the

McIlhenny family McIlhenny or McElhenny is an Irish surname commonly found in Donegal and Derry. They are a Sept of the Cenel Eogain race, son of Niall high king of Ireland. In Gaelic the name translates "servant of Saint Canice". Notable people with the surname in ...

, and he collaborated with

Josselyn Van Tyne Josselyn Van Tyne (11 May 1902, Philadelphia – 30 January 1957, Ann Arbor) was an American ornithologist and museum curator of birds. A son of the historian Claude H. Van Tyne, Josselyn Van Tyne received his A.B. from Harvard University in 1925 ...

. His PhD students included

Thomas Raymond Howell Thomas Raymond Howell (July 17, 1924 December 14, 2004) was an American ornithologist. He was a fellow of the American Ornithological Union from 1959 until his death, and was president of it from 1982 to 1984. He was a prominent figure in ornitho ...

. His most famous contribution to ornithology was a technique he developed along with the astronomer W.A. Rense to study nocturnal migration. They recruited a number of amateur astronomers to collaborate and produce quantitative estimates of bird migration by direct observation. This was his doctoral research topic and he developed it with his students S. A. Gauthreaux and Robert J. Newman. He received the Brewster award of the

American Ornithologists Union The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...

for this work in 1956. The

long-whiskered owlet The long-whiskered owlet (''Xenoglaux loweryi'') is a tiny owl that is endemic to a small area in the Andean mountains in Amazonas and San Martín in northern Peru. It is restricted to cloud forests with dense undergrowth and epiphytes at about ...

(''Xenoglaux loweryi'') and ''

Gerrhonotus liocephalus loweryi ''Gerrhonotus'' is a genus of anguid lizards that are commonly referred to as alligator lizards, due to a vague resemblance to an alligator. Along with glass lizards (''Ophisaurus'') and many other lizards, alligator lizards have the ability to r ...

'', a subspecies of alligator lizard, are named in his honor.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Lowery", p. 161).

References

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lowery, George 1913 births 1978 deaths American ornithologists Louisiana State University faculty People from Monroe, Louisiana Louisiana State University alumni University of Kansas alumni 20th-century American zoologists