Ridgway, Robert (1850–1929)

US ornithologist. He did field studies but it was his writings that gained him the reputation as the country's leading ornithologist. He systematized the colour system for bird identification and wrote Color Standards and Nomenclature 1886, 1912 and The Birds of North and Middle America (eight volumes) 1901–19.

Born in Mount Carmel, Illinois, at the age of nine he was making coloured drawings of birds he shot. He was the protégé of the zoologist Spencer Baird, and was curator of birds at the US National Museum 1880–1929.