Lester Leroy Short (born May 29, 1933) is an American ornithologist. His main research field is the order Piciformes.

Biography

Short was born in

Port Chester, New York Port Chester is a administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the largest part of the town of Rye (town), New York, Rye in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County by populat ...

. In 1955 he received a

PHD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

. After a study of vertebrate zoology at Charles Sibley in the

he wrote his dissertation with the title ''Hybridization in the Flickers (Colaptes) of North America'' in 1959. From 1960 to 1962 he was assistant professor at the

Adelphi University Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York. Adelphi also has centers in Manhattan, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County. There is also a virtual, online campus for remote students. It is the oldest institution of higher ed ...

. From 1963 to 1966 he worked for the

United States Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...

. From 1966 until his retirement in 1997 he was Lamont curator of birds at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

. In that position he made expeditions to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

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

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

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 ...

and the Pacific islands. In 1972 Short took part on a survey to study the

Okinawa woodpecker The is a woodpecker endemic to the Okinawa Prefecture of Japan. It was previously placed in the monotypic genus ''Sapheopipo''. Other common names for this species are Noguchi's woodpecker, Okinawan woodpecker, Pryer's woodpecker and Ryukyu woo ...

. After the results of this expedition were published in the ''

Wilson Bulletin ''The Wilson Journal of Ornithology'' (until 2006 ''The Wilson Bulletin'') is a quarterly scientific journal published by the Wilson Ornithological Society. Both the society and its journal were named after American ornithologist Alexander Wilson ...

'' in 1973 the American public became aware of the threats which brought the Okinawa woodpecker to the verge of extinction. A planned project to build

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

facilities in the Yambaru forest in the northern

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

was stopped to protect the woodpecker. In 1986 and 1987 Short was among the members of a Cuban-American-Expedition which were able to observe the thought to be extinct

Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker The Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker ( es, carpintero real, link=no) (''Campephilus principalis bairdii'') is a subspecies of the ivory-billed woodpecker native to Cuba. Originally classified as a separate species, recent research has indicated tha ...

(''Campephilus principalis bairdii'') for a short while. This was the last reliable sighting of this subspecies. Short is the author of ''Woodpeckers of the World'' (1982), a comprehensive account on the order Piciformes, and of more than 250 scientific articles including descriptions of the Kaempfer's woodpecker and the pale-eyed blackbird. In 1978 he married the Kenyan ornithologist and bioacoustican Jennifer F. M. Horne who died in 2008.

Bibliography (selected)

*''Hybridization in the Flickers (Colaptes) of North America'', 1959 *''Aves nuevas o poco comunes Corrientes, Republica Argentina'', 1971 *''Birds of the World'', 1975 *''Woodpeckers of the World'', 1982 *''The Birdwatcher's Book of Lists: Lists for Recreation and Recordkeeping'', 1987 *''Annotated Check-list of the Birds of East Africa'', 1990 *''The Birdwatcher's Book of Lists: Western Region'', 1992 *''The Birdwatcher's Book of Lists: Eastern Region'', 1992 *''The Lives of Birds: Birds of the World and Their Behavior'', 1993 *''Toucans, Barbets and Honeyguides: Ramphastidae, Capitonidae and Indicatoridae (Bird Families of the World)'', 2001 *del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A. & Sargatal, J. (editors). (2002). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 7: Jacamars to Woodpeckers. Lynx Edicions. (Chapter about the Toucans, Barbets and Honeyguides together with Jennifer Horne)

External links

Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Short, Lester Leroy American ornithologists Cornell University alumni 1933 births Living people People from Port Chester, New York Scientists from New York (state)