Birds are indicators of the environment. If they are in trouble, we know we'll soon be in trouble.

Vultures are homely, but they clean up all the garbage and that's good. And they're elegant in the sky.

Conservation is not just an ideal that we read about; it works.

Birds are an ecological litmus paper.

Birding, after all, is just a game. Going beyond that is what is important.

Birds, it must be admitted, are the most exciting and most deserving of the vertebrates; they are perhaps the best entre into the study of natural history, and a very good wedge into conservation awareness.

The philosophy that I have worked under most of my life is that the serious study of natural history is an activity which has far-reaching effects in every aspect of a person's life. It ultimately makes people protective of the environment in a very committed way. It is my opinion that the study of natural history should be the primary avenue for creating environmentalists.