Rob Bierregaard

Rob's passion in the natural world has always been birds of prey. His Ph.D. research addressed the importance of competition in the ecological structure of raptor communities. From 1995 to 2011, Rob taught Ornithology and Ecology in the Biology Department of UNC-Charlotte. Previously (1978-1988), Rob was the original field director of the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project in Manaus, Brazil. Rob and his graduate students carried out a 10-year study of the flourishing Barred Owl populations around Charlotte, NC. He now focuses his research on the ecology and migration of Ospreys in eastern North America. He has deployed satellite or cell-tower transmitters on 61 juvenile and 47 adult Ospreys and spends most of his time analyzing the data from his “flock” of Ospreys as they move back and forth between North and South America. He is now a research associate of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. In the summer of 2013, while waiting to trap a young Osprey at its nest, someone suggested that Rob should write a book about his favorite Osprey. The idea started him down a windy road that led to the publication of Belle’s Journey in May of 2018.