Donald Brightsmith

Donald Brightsmith’s research focuses on the conservation, ecology, health, and welfare of parrots and their relatives in both the wild and captivity through the Schubot Exotic Bird Health Center. Brightsmith did his doctoral research in Manu, Peru, and has been involved in parrot and macaw research ever since. In 1999, took over the Tambopata Macaw Project, to study the ecology and conservation of macaws and parrots in the lowlands of southern Peru. Since then, he has published a host of groundbreaking papers on various aspects of macaw breeding, reintroduction and clay lick ecology. Brightsmith earned a bachelor’s in natural resources from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in zoology from Duke University.