John Douglas Gibson ( – 21 May 1984) was a notable

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n amateur

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

who became an internationally respected expert on the

Diomedeidae 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 Pacifi ...

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 Pacifi ...

family. Gibson lived in

Thirroul, New South Wales Thirroul () is a northern seaside suburb of the city of Wollongong, Australia. Situated between Austinmer and Bulli, it is approximately 13 kilometres north of Wollongong, and 73 km south of Sydney. It lies between the Pacific Ocean ...

all his life, and worked at the nearby

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

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

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

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 Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects 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 Sout ...

, 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. The genus ''Diomedea'' formerly included all albatrosses except the sooty albatrosses, but in 1996 the genus was split, with the mollymawks and the North Paci ...

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. The common name and trinomia ...

, a subspecies of the

wandering albatross The wandering albatross, snowy albatross, white-winged albatross or goonie (''Diomedea exulans'') is a large seabird from the family Diomedeidae, which has a circumpolar range in the Southern Ocean. It was the last species of albatross to be desc ...

''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 bird conservation, conservati ...

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

Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus ''Dromaius''. The emu' ...

'', and other journals. He also served on the Barren Grounds Bird Observatory management committee and was instrumental in establishing the

Illawarra Bird Observers Club The Illawarra is a coastal region in the Australian state of New South Wales, nestled between the mountains and the sea. It is situated immediately south of Sydney and north of the South Coast region. It encompasses the two cities of Wollongon ...

in 1977.

References

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