Matt talks finches!

Matthew A. Young, M.S. is Executive Director and Founder of the Finch Research Network (FiRN) – soon to be launched. He has been observing and enjoying nature since a very young age. He’s lived in Central New York the past 22 years and it was during this time when he really started studying everything from birds to orchids, bogs and fens. Matt received his B.S. in Water Resources with a minor in Meteorology from SUNY-Oneonta and his M.S. in Ornithology from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry/Syracuse University in 2003. He did his masters research on avian diversity in restored wetlands of central New York at the Great Swamp Conservancy. He was a Regional Editor of the Kingbird, the state ornithological journal in New York, for 10 years. He was an Adjunct Professor in Environmental Studies at SUNY-Cortland, and currently teaches an Intro to Birding class for Cornell University plus, is the Board Chair at The Wetland Trust.He was project lead on the Cornell Lab’s first Winter Finch Irruptive Bird Survey for Bird Source in 1999, and did extensive field work for the Lab’s Cerulean and Golden-winged Warblers atlas projects as well. He was the Collections Management Leader/Audio Engineer at the Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology for 12 years where he edited sounds for several Merlin packs around the world in addition to being the lead audio engineer on the guides: the Songs of the Warblers of North America, Audubon Society Voices of Hawaii’s Birds, and the Cornell Lab’s Guides to Bird Sounds, the North America Master and Essential Sets. He’s been a tour guide leader for Victor Emanuel Nature Tours, written finch species accounts for breeding bird atlases and Birds of the World, has published several papers about the Red Crossbill vocal complex, and is the Executive Director and Founder of the Finch Research Network (FiRN).

E-mail: may6@cornell.edu or info@finchnetwork.org

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