Stuart Keith

George Stuart Keith (4 September 1931 – 13 February 2003) was an English and American ornithologist. He was a champion birder, editor of a series of books about African birds, and co-founder of the American Birding Association (ABA).

Early life

Keith was born on 4 September 1931 in Clothall, Britain, near Baldock in Hertfordshire.^[1] During World War II, he moved with his mother and four siblings to Toronto, Ontario.^[1] In 1943, he returned to Britain to study classics at Marlborough College.^[1] After service during the Korean War as a lieutenant in an infantry regiment, he completed his formal education, receiving an M.A. degree in classics from Worcester College of the University of Oxford.^[1][2]

Career

He returned to North America in 1955.^[1] From 1958, he was a research associate in the ornithology department of the American Museum of Natural History in New York.^[1][2][3] He joined the American Ornithologists' Union in 1959; became an elective member in 1970; and was made a fellow in 1991.^[1] From 1965 to 1973, he served as secretary, then president, of the U.S Section of the International Council for Bird Preservation, now BirdLife International.^[1][2] In 1969, he helped found the ABA, and he served as its first president, from 1973 to 1976.^[4][5]

In 1978, Keith joined the project that would compile the seven-volume series The Birds of Africa as a member of its Board of Advisors.^[1] In 1980, he became a senior editor, sharing duties with Hilary Fry and Emil K. Urban.^[1] He contributed the sections describing bulbuls and cisticolas, and had completed his work on the final volume (published in 2004) at the time of his death.^[1]

With John Gooders, in 1980 he published the Collins Bird Guide to the birds of Britain and Europe.^[1]

Keith made contributions in other media as well. In the 1960s, he produced a film about cranes in Japan; he produced a feature-length film on African birds.^[1] He made recordings of bird songs from Madagascar and continental Africa; with William Gunn, he produced Birds of the African Rain Forests, the first recordings to specialize in the vocalizations of 90 species of African forest birds.^[1]

It is for his accomplishments as a birder that Keith is most widely known. In 1956, he set a one-year record of 594 species seen in the United States and Canada.^[1][6] He was the first to see 4,000 species worldwide, a total which he achieved in the 1970s.^[1] At the time of his death, he had seen more than 6,500 species; however, he was surpassed by Phoebe Snetsinger, who is credited with almost 8,400 species.^[1][2] Keith's feats were recorded in The Wall Street Journal, People, The New Yorker, and Bird Watcher's Digest.^[1][6][7]

Recognition

In 1993 he was awarded the Linnaean Society of New York's Eisenmann Medal.^[8] In 1999, he received the Ludlow Griscom Award from the ABA "in appreciation of his vision and leadership in shaping ABA and tireless passion and dedication to the birds of North America."^[1][9]

Later life and death

Keith became a naturalized American citizen in 1994.^[1] He died, of circulatory-related causes, on 13 February 2003 while on a birding trip to Chuuk in Micronesia, having seen a new life bird earlier in the day.^[1][2]

Selected publications

• Keith, Stuart and John Gooders. 1980. Collins Bird Guide: A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe. Collins, London, UK. 767 pp. ISBN 978-0002191197.
• Urban, Emil K.; C. Hilary Fry; and Stuart Keith. 1986. The Birds of Africa, Volume II: Game Birds to Pigeons. Academic Press, London, UK. 552 pp. ISBN 9780121373023.
• Fry, C. Hilary; Stuart Keith; and Emil K. Urban. 1988. The Birds of Africa, Volume III: Parrots to Woodpeckers. Academic Press, London, UK. 611 pp. ISBN 9780121373030.
• Keith, Stuart; Emil K. Urban; and C. Hilary Fry. 1992. The Birds of Africa, Volume IV: Broadbills to Chats. Academic Press, London, UK. 632 pp. ISBN 9780121373047.
• Urban, Emil K.; C. Hilary Fry; and Stuart Keith. 1997. The Birds of Africa, Volume V: Thrushes to Puffback Flycatchers. Academic Press, London, UK. 672 pp. ISBN 9780121373054.
• Fry, C. Hilary; Stuart Keith; and Emil K. Urban. 2000. The Birds of Africa, Volume VI: Picathartes to Oxpeckers. Academic Press, London, UK. 600 pp. ISBN 9780121373061.
• Fry, C. Hilary and Stuart Keith. 2004. The Birds of Africa, Volume VII: Sparrows to Buntings. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. 728 pp. ISBN 9780691119526.

References

External links

• Robertson, Don. 2003. In Memoriam: G. Stuart Keith.