Robert Berkeley Payne is an ornithologist, professor and curator at the Museum of Zoology and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan.
Academic background Payne had completed his B.S. at the University of Michigan in 1960, and Ph.D. at the University of California (Berkeley) in 1965. He was awarded an NSF postdoctoral fellowship by the University of Cape Town. He was awarded the 2010 Margaret Morse Nice Medal by the Wilson Ornithological Society.
Fields of study Payne is an expert in behavioral ecology and evolution, bird song and systematics. He has done fieldwork in Africa for 2 years, Western Australia for three years, and in Michigan for 20 years.
Publications Some notable publications: 1983 - A distributional checklist of the birds of Michigan 2003 - Museum collections as sources of genetic data 2005 - The Cuckoos, Birds Families of the World 2005 - The Birds of Africa
References
http://www.eeb.lsa.umich.edu/eeb/people/rbpayne/index.html https://www.amazon.com/Cuckoos-Bird-Families-World/dp/0198502133/sr=1-1/qid=1170751790/ref=sr_1_1/105-6820948-6490041?ie=UTF8&s=books