Dr. H. Douglas Pratt is a freelance ornithologist, wildlife artist, nature photographer, and musician who lives in Cary, NC. Until recently, he was Research Curator of Birds at the North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, and he retains the position of Curator Emeritus there. Born in 1944 in Charlotte, NC, he attended Davidson College (B. S. 1966) and Louisiana State University (Ph.D. 1979). Before returning to North Carolina in 2005, he was for many years an honorary Research Associate of the LSU Museum of Natural Science. A Fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union, he specializes in the evolution of birds on islands and has published scientific papers in a variety of scientific journals. He is also a pioneer recordist of bird sounds on Pacific islands, and an Associate of the Macaulay Library, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. Although he lacks formal art training, Dr. Pratt is also an internationally known zoological illustrator and wildlife artist. He is author and/or illustrator of 13 full-length books and a contributor to others ranging from the National Geographic Society's Field Guide to the Birds of North America to A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific, the multi-volume Handbook of Birds of the World,  and The Hawaiian Honeycreepers: Drepanidinae in the Oxford University Press series Bird Families of the World. He is currently working with co-author Phil Bruner on a revision of his Hawaii/Pacific field guide.

Doug is also an acoustic musician who plays autoharp and dobro. He was the 2006 winner of the International Autoharp Championship at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, KS. In 2011, he won the first Cohen-Grappel Grant from the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering to produce a first CD of his music, which will be released in June 2012.


Dear Friends,

I finally got around to putting up a website, thanks to the able help of Josh Southern, a fine young graphic designer and son of my lifelong friends Sterling and Linda Southern. The high-blown description above came from a publisher’s blurb on one of my books (my ego isn’t quite that big!). But it shows that I have a lot of ground to cover, and this site has been “under construction” since going live in late 2009. Now it is nearly complete, although I intend to add things fairly often. Throughout the site you will find explanatory comments from me, always in italics.

What you have here is essentially my autobiography, an illustrated CV if you will, which I hope will not be complete for many years! It’s like the Arkansas Traveler in the song who asks a farmer, “Have you lived ‘round here all your life?” To which the farmer replies “Not yet.” You will see that I have major sections dealing separately with various aspects of my life. Sometimes these different interests overlap, but I hope it all makes some sense.

New features of the site are ways that you can shop for and purchase original artwork (Art Sales), or contribute to the production of the new edition of my Tropical Pacific Field Guide. I’m also including a few “public service” features, such as the Pacific Birds Bibliography, that I hope will be helpful to scholars and researchers.  So come on in and look around. Please send any comment or other feedback on content to me at doug@hdouglaspratt.com.

Doug


Click on this thumbnail to view a segment about Doug Pratt from the Travel Channel program "Designs on Travel"