On the Wing #35: (BRO) Wilson Vs. Forbush
Round three of the Babe Ruth of Ornithology starts off this week with Alexander Wilson vs. Edward Howe Forbush. I hesitate to guess who'll win this round (but not really) Lets do this!! More birds named after him than Audubon could shake a boom stick at! Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) can easily be called the father of American Ornithology. After moving to America with his nephew in 1794, legend has it that the first bird he saw when he was in the New World was a Red-headed Woodpecker ( Melanerpes erythrocephalus ). While he always had a touch of intrigue towards the natural world, it was a famous naturalist named William Bartram, that gave him a passion for ornithology. It is Wilson that, more so than Audubon himself, has had more associated with him with regards to birds than any other American ornithological figure. As the aforementioned father of ornithology in America, his name is remembered with such species as Wilson's Storm-Petrel ( Oceanites oceanicus ), Wilson...