McKean, John Leonard   (1941 - 1996)

Born on 18 January 1941 in Melbourne; died on 15 February 1996, in Melbourne.

As well as being a professional ornithologist with the CSIRO's Division of Wildlife Research, John was an enthusiastic twitcher, holding the record for some time for the highest number of species of Australian birds seen in one year, 535.

John was one of the early enthusiasts for the practice of bird banding in Australia. His ventures into areas where species had not previously been banded contributed significantly to the Australian Bird Banding Scheme, and helped it to become the scientific base for collecting information that it is today.

John was also a bat bander and his enthusiasm for these animals is well documented in a number of papers.

John suffered a major setback in 1974 when Cyclone Tracey totally destroyed his family's home in Darwin. He was in Melbourne on Christmas Eve when news came through that a major cyclone had devastated Darwin.
John lost a very valuable library, built up with the help of his father. In spite of this massive loss, including many of his personal notes, John rebuilt his library to an amazing degree, demonstrating his resilience to pursue his great love in life - information about birds.

He published around 100 scientific papers on birds and bats.

Source: Extracted from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McKean_(ornithologist)
http://www.environment.gov.au/archive/biodiversity/science/abbbs/pubs/jul-1996.pdf
The Age newspaper(Melbourne, Vic.), Sat 25 Jan 1941, Page 13, Family Notices
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/search? - John Leonard McKean
Portrait Photo: seeking portrait.

Collecting localities for 'McKean, J. or J.L.' from AVH (2024)

Data from 1,079 specimens