Derek Goodwin

Derek Goodwin (actually Richard Patrick Goodwin, born February 26, 1920 in Woking, Surrey; † 14 May 2008) was an English ornithologist and author of bird field guides.

Life and work

In June 1941, Goodwin served as a gunner with the 149th Anti-Tank Regiment in the Royal Artillery in Egypt. In September of the same year he witnessed the siege of Tobruk in Libya. In the winter of 1942/1943 he was transferred to the Middle East Pigeon Service ( pigeon service in the Middle East ), who was stationed in Maadi Camp in Egypt. Here Goodwin matured interest in birds. He made a lot of notes and diaries of his bird watching in North Africa, but all were lost during a flash flood.

In August 1945 he returned to England. In September 1946, he was an assistant at the Natural History Museum in London. Beginning of the 1970s he became a permanent employee in the bird department of the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum in Tring.

In 1965 he took part in the Harold Hall expedition in Australia, where he discovered the subspecies Petrophassa albipennis boothi ​​the White Mirror pigeon. In the following years he accompanied David Snow to Brazil, where both field studies operated, as well as museum specimens were collected. In his garden in Virginia Water Goodwin had large aviaries, where he succeeded in 1954, the British present affirmed the Strichelhähers. For this he received the Avicultural Society 's Award.

In 1972 he received the Union Medal of the British Ornithologists ' Union, where he was a member since 1950 and from 1963 worked in the executive committee until 1966 for his ornithological work. In 1959 he was korrespondieres member of the American Ornithologists ' Union. In 1976 he was awarded the American William F. Hollander Merit Award Medal. Although Goodwin had never learned German at school, he was able to teach this language and so we can understand German books on ethology and ornithology. In 1977 he was elected a corresponding member of the German Ornithologists' Society. In addition, he was a member and honorary member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. However, since he did not agree with some aspects of the politics of this society, in particular lack of protection measures for the imported in rural England Gold and Amherstfasane, the culling of ruddy ducks, and with the reintroduction of certain birds of prey such as the hawk or the eagle, he resigned his membership.

Goodwin wrote several popular books about birds determination, including Pigeons and Doves of the World (1967 ) Crows of the World (1976) and Estrildid Finches of the World (1982). He also published the works of Bird Behaviour (1961 ), Domestic Birds ( 1965), Birds of Man 's World ( 1978) and the poetry collection Bird Room Ballads (1969 ) with Pat Hall.