Charles Fleming (ornithologist)
New Zealand ornithologist, paleontologist and environmentalist

Charles Fleming (ornithologist)

The basics
Quick facts
Intro
New Zealand ornithologist, paleontologist and environmentalist
Gender:
Male
Work field:
Birth:
9 September 1916
Death:
11 September 1987
The details
Biography

Sir Charles Alexander Fleming, KBE, FRS, FRSNZ, FRAOU (9 September 1916 – 11 September 1987) was a New Zealand geologist, ornithologist, avian palaeontologist and environmentalist. He spent the last twenty years of his life studying the evolution and systematics of New Zealand cicadas.
He was active in the Save Manapouri Campaign, was a spokesperson for Native Forest Action Council and the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand. In 1974 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union.
In 1988 the Royal Society of New Zealand established the Charles Fleming Award which is awarded to individuals who have achieved distinction in the protection, maintenance, management, improvement, or understanding of the environment.
In 1997, Trevor H. Worthy commemorated Charles Fleming in the species' epithet of the prehistoric rail Pleistorallus flemingi from the mid-Pleistocene of New Zealand.