Donald Kroodsma Explained

Donald Eugene Kroodsma (born 7 July 1946 in Zeeland, Michigan) is an American author and ornithologist, one of the world's leading experts on the science of birdsong.

Education and career

He received in 1968 his B.A. from Hope College in Holland, Michigan and in 1972 his Ph.D. from Oregon State University under John A. Wiens with dissertation Singing behavior of the Bewick's wren: development, dialects, population structure, and geographical variation. Kroodsma was from 1972 to 1974 a postdoc and from 1974 to 1980 an assistant professor at Rockefeller University. He was from 1980 to 1987 an associate professor and from 1987 to 2003 a full professor and is since 2004 a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.^[1]

His research deals with vocal behavior in birds, including neural control, evolution, ontogeny, and ecology. He was an associate editor from 1996 to 2003 for the encyclopedia Birds of North America and from 1998 to 2002 for the journal The Auk.

Awards and honors

• 2003 — Elliott Coues Award from the American Ornithologists’ Union
• 2006 — John Burroughs Medal for natural history writing, for The Singing Life of Birds
• 2006 — Robert Ridgway Award from the American Birding Association "given for excellence in publications pertaining to field ornithology"
• 2014 — Margaret Morse Nice Medal from the Wilson Ornithological Society

Selected publications

Articles

• 1976. Reproductive development in a female songbird: differential stimulation by quality of male song. Science. 192. 4239. 574–575. 10.1126/science.192.4239.574. 17745657. Kroodsma. D. E.. 1976Sci...192..574K. 39089666.
• 1977. Correlates of song organization among North American wrens. American Naturalist. 111. 981. 995–1008. 10.1086/283228. Kroodsma. Donald E.. 85156300.
• with Roberta Pickert: Environmentally dependent sensitive periods for avian vocal learning. Nature. 288. 5790. 1980. 477–479. 10.1038/288477a0. Kroodsma. Donald E.. Pickert. Roberta. 1980Natur.288..477K. 4317167.
• with Richard A. Canady and Fernando Nottebohm: 1984. Population differences in complexity of a learned skill are correlated with the brain space involved. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 81. 19. 6232–6234. 10.1073/pnas.81.19.6232. 6592611. 391894. Canady. R. A.. Kroodsma. D. E.. Nottebohm. F.. 1984PNAS...81.6232C. free.
• 1984. Songs of the Alder Flycatcher (Empidonax alnorum) and Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii) are innate. Auk. 101. 1. 13–24. 4086218. Kroodsma. Donald E.. 10.1093/auk/101.1.13.
• 1989. Suggested experimental designs for song playbacks. Animal Behaviour. 37. 600–609. 10.1016/0003-3472(89)90039-0. Kroodsma. Donald E.. 53161188.
• with Bruce E. Byers: 1991. The function(s) of bird song. American Zoologist. 31. 2. 318–328. 3883409. Kroodsma. Donald E.. Byers. Bruce E.. 10.1093/icb/31.2.318.
• with Masakazu Konishi: 1991. A suboscine bird (eastern phoebe, Sayornis phoebe) develops normal song without auditory feedback. Animal Behaviour. 42. 3. 477–487. 10.1016/S0003-3472(05)80047-8. Kroodsma. Donald E.. Konishi. Masakazu. 53202327.

Books

• as editor with Edward H. Miller: Book: 1982. Acoustic communication in birds. 1. Production, perception, and design features of sounds. New York. Academic Press. Book: 2012 edition.

  pkb

  . 978-0-12-426801-2. Kroodsma. 2012-12-02.
• as editor with E. H. Miller: Book: 1982. Acoustic communication in birds. 2. Song learning and its consequences. Academic Press. New York. 9780080924175.
• as editor with E. H. Miller: Book: Ecology and Evolution of Acoustic Communication in Birds. Cornell University Press. Ithaca, NY. ^[2]
• Book: 2005. The Singing Life of Birds. The Art and Science of Listening to Birdsong. registration. Boston. Houghton-Mifflin Co.. ^[3] Book: 2015 edition. 978-0-618-40568-8.

  pbk, drawings by Nancy Haver

  . Kroodsma. Donald. 2015-02-17.
• Book: 2008. The Backyard Birdsong Guide. Eastern and Central North America. San Francisco. Chronicle Books. 9780811863421.
• Book: 2008. The Backyard Birdsong Guide. Western North America. San Francisco. Chronicle Books. 9780811863971.
• Book: 2009. Birdsong by the Seasons: A Year of Listening to Birds. Boston. Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt Co.. 9780544764224. ^[4]
• Book: Listening to a Continent Sing: Birdsong by Bicycle from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Princeton University Press. 2016. 9781400880324. ^{[5] [6]}

External links

• Web site: Archived "Interviews". donaldkroodsma.com.
• Web site: The Singing Life of Birds. 5 August 2014. YouTube. (lecture by Donald Kroodsma, May 6, 2011, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Academic Resume. donaldkroodsma.com.
2. Weisman, Ron. Ecology and Evolution of Acoustic Communication in Birds. Donald E. Kroodsma, Edward H. Miller. The Quarterly Review of Biology. 72. 4. December 1997. 500–501. 10.1086/420041.
3. Barlow, Virginia. Review of The Singing Life of Birds by Donald Kroodsma. Spring 2008. Northern Woodlands.
4. Review of Birdsong by the Seasons by Donald Kroodsma. Mones, Wayne. 17 May 2009. Audubon.
5. Harter, Lauren B.. Review of Listening to a Continent Sing by Donald Kroodsma. Western Birds. 47. 323–324. 2016.
6. Web site: Review of Listening to a Continent Sing by Donald Kroodsma. Kirkus Reviews. 2016.