Robert Berkeley Payne is an ornithologist, professor and curator at the Museum of Zoology and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology,

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

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 land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

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

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

. 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 expected ...

by the

Wilson Ornithological Society The Wilson Ornithological Society (WOS) is an ornithology, 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 Michig ...

Fields of study

Payne is an expert in

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

and

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

bird song Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs (relatively complex vocalizations) are distinguished by func ...

and

systematics Biological 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: cladograms, phylogenetic tre ...

. He has done fieldwork in

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 ...

for 2 years,

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

for three years, and in

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

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