While exploring Galveston Bay on May 5, 1837, John James Audubon noted female Red-winged Starlings [or present-day Red-winged blackbird] flying north in search of a mate. In the fall, Audubon witnessed Red-winged blackbirds join cowbirds and other blackbirds to form “in such immense and thick flocks as almost to cloud the sky.”
The Red-winged blackbird has also caught the attention of the likes of Arthur Augustus Allen (1885-1964). Allen was born in Buffalo, New York, and received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1911. The title of his doctorate thesis was “The Red-Winged Blackbird: A Study in the Ecology of a Cattail Marsh.”
Upon returning from an expedition to Colombia in 1912, Allen was appointed an instructor in zoology at Cornell. By 1926, Allen was teaching at Cornell as a professor. In 1935, Allen led a search in Louisiana for the Ivory-billed woodpecker (Plate 66). Those they found are the last Ivory-billed woodpeckers that have been documented for science. The bird has since been declared officially extinct.
In 1933 Allen published an ornithological history under the title Fifty Years’ Progress of American Ornithology, 1883–1933. Allen also published Book of Bird Life in 1930 as an introduction to the study of ornithology. In 1929, Allen began recording bird songs that he used to produce the first phonograph record of bird songs. Beginning in 1932, Allen worked to develop the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Arthur continued teaching at Cornell until his retirement in 1953. It is estimated that Allen taught over 10,000 students, of whom at least 100 received doctorates in ornithology. From 1953 to 1959, Allen lectured for the National Audubon Society.