North Fork Blog

Birding Biosketch for:
Gary O. Rankin, Ph.D.

Gary Rankin always loved watching birds at the family bird feeders in Arkansas. When he joined the faculty of the Marshall University School of Medicine, Huntington, West Virginia in 1978, he sought a diversion from the rigors of helping start a new medical school. Attending a lecture on West Virginia’s spring birds by a local expert, he found a new and fascinating world of nature opening before him. Gary joined the local Audubon Society that year and began a quest to learn more about the birds around him. This quest has allowed Gary to go birding in most parts of the United States, as well as many foreign countries, including China, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rico, Ecuador, England and Germany. In the lower 48 states, he has seen almost 680 different bird species, and he has observed 280 bird species in West Virginia alone.

Over the past 30 years, he has held many offices in West Virginia bird clubs, including President of the Huntington Tri-State Audubon and Leon Wilson Bird Club. He is a long time member of the Brooks Bird Club (Wheeling, WV) and the American Birding Association. He has also served on the West Virginia Birds Record Committee to review and validate rare bird sightings in West Virginia and was a participant in the first five-year West Virginia Breeding Bird Survey. Gary has also written numerous articles on bird feeding, plantings for the birds, building birdhouses, birding equipment and books, and many other topics. He frequently leads bird walks, participates in the Audubon Christmas Bird Counts each year, and regularly gives programs on birds to local groups. He and his wife Monica also maintain about 50 bluebird boxes in the Huntington, West Virginia area to help the Eastern Bluebird rebound from population declines.