Matthew R. Halley is an American ornithologist and historian based at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (ANSP). His research integrates methods from multiple fields including comparative biology, systematics, genetics, taxonomy, bioacoustics, and the history of science, and he is known for rediscovering lost artifacts, type specimens, and historical documents that expose myths and challenge common views about the history of science. In 2020, he published a provocative exposé about “the fraud that launched [Audubon’s] The Birds of America”. Halley holds a BA in Sociology from Pennsylvania State University (2004) and an MS in Natural Resources from Delaware State University (2014). For his MS thesis, he conducted the first genetic and video study of the mating system of the Veery (Catharus fuscescens) and discovered a rare mating system called flexible polygynandry, wherein both sexes copulate with multiple partners, some nests are attended by multiple male feeders, and each male may also feed at multiple nests. Halley is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Drexel University and ANSP Graduate Research Associate, where he recently defended his dissertation on the systematics and evolution of seasonal migration in the genus Catharus.

http://matthewhalley.wordpress.com