Richard Zusi

Richard Laurence Zusi (January 27, 1930 – January 15, 2024) was an American ornithologist, known as a world-class expert on hummingbird anatomy and the functional anatomy of birds, in particular "avian jaw mechanics and the evolution of structural complexes."

Life and career Zusi grew up in Toronto. He graduated in 1951 with a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University. In the zoology department of the University of Michigan he graduated with an M.S. in 1953 and a Ph.D. in 1959. From 1958 to 1963 he taught at the University of Maine. In 1963 he was hired by Philip Strong Humphrey (1926–2009) for the Division of Birds of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. (The fluid used is commonly ethanol or isopropyl alcohol.)

Zusi collected avian specimens not only in the United States and Canada, but also in South America (Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela), the Caribbean (Dominica), and Iceland. He was the principal curator of the Roger Tory Peterson Exhibition, He retired in 1994

Selected publications

(over 600 citations)

Eponyms Heliangelus zusii Graves, 1993