Alexander Skutch

After a joint meeting of the Association of Field Ornithologists, American Birding Association and Asociación Ornitológica de Costa Rica held in San Jose, Costa Rica, in 1997, Skutch made an endowment to the Association of Field Ornithologists to establish a research award. Officially The Pamela and Alexander F. Skutch Research Award, the award is usually referred to as the Skutch Awards. Skutch was honored at that meeting for over 60 years of contributions to ornithology.

In 1941 Skutch purchased a farm in Costa Rica. There, as an author of one of his obituaries wrote:

Skutch wrote over 40 books and over 200 papers on ornithology, preferring a descriptive style and eschewing statistics and even banding. He died eight days before his 100th birthday, in the same year that he received the Loye and Alden Miller Research Award. He is universally regarded as one of the world's greatest ornithologists.

Alexander Skutch was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He received a doctorate in botany from Johns Hopkins University in 1928. He then found employment with United Fruit Company, which had a problem with banana diseases, for which it needed the expertise of a botanist. After an initial stay in Jamaica, Skutch traveled to Guatemala, Panama and Honduras. During this time he fell in love with the tropics and also acquired a deep interest in birds. He began studying their habits. Skutch collected plants for museums to make money, but observing birds remained his life's main focus.

Alexander Frank Skutch (May 20, 1904 – May 12, 2004) was a naturalist and writer. He published numerous scientific papers and books about birds and several books on philosophy. He is best remembered ornithologically for his pioneering work on helpers at the nest.