Theodore A. Parker III
Overview
Theodore A. "Ted" Parker III (April 1, 1953 – August 3, 1993) was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 ornithologist who specialized in the Neotropic
Neotropic
In biogeography, the Neotropic or Neotropical zone is one of the eight terrestrial ecozones. This ecozone includes South and Central America, the Mexican lowlands, the Caribbean islands, and southern Florida, because these regions share a large number of plant and animal groups.It is sometimes used...

s. He "was widely considered the finest field birder / ornithologist that the world had ever seen." (Zimmer 1993).
Parker grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster is a city in the south-central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat of Lancaster County and one of the older inland cities in the United States, . With a population of 59,322, it ranks eighth in population among Pennsylvania's cities...

 and became interested in birdwatching at an early age. In 1971 he broke the North American Big Year
Big year
A Big Year is an informal competition among birders to see who can see or hear the largest number of species of birds within a single calendar year and within a specific geographical area. A Big Year may be done within a single US state, a Canadian province, within the lower 48 continental U.S....

 record (seeing more species of birds in a year than anyone before).
 
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