Robert Rosenfield

Robert N. Rosenfield is Professor of Ecology at the Department of Biology, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where he teaches Ecology, Ornithology, and Raptor Ecology. His courses highlight experiential, hands-on fieldwork for undergraduate students with Cooper's Hawks, including two field-courses in tundra settings, Subarctic Ecology and Survey of Gyrfalcons in Alaska, and Arctic Ecology and Survey of Peregrine Falcons in Greenland. He has made 20 trips to Greenland to study Peregrine...See more

Robert N. Rosenfield is Professor of Ecology at the Department of Biology, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where he teaches Ecology, Ornithology, and Raptor Ecology. His courses highlight experiential, hands-on fieldwork for undergraduate students with Cooper's Hawks, including two field-courses in tundra settings, Subarctic Ecology and Survey of Gyrfalcons in Alaska, and Arctic Ecology and Survey of Peregrine Falcons in Greenland. He has made 20 trips to Greenland to study Peregrine Falcons. His research with raptors began with capture and banding of migratory hawks, falcons, and owls at the Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in his home town of Duluth, Minnesota in 1973. This experience sparked his M.S. research at UWSP on the nesting biology of Broad-winged Hawks in Wisconsin during 1976-1981. Concurrent with this thesis work he was invited by the state of Wisconsin in 1980 to investigate the breeding status of the Cooper's Hawk, a bird deemed at the time to be in population peril. This work led to the discovery of a thriving nesting population, and launched a 38-year, ongoing research of population, behavioral, and molecular aspects of nesting Cooper's Hawks. Some of this research was used to complete his Ph.D. in Zoology at North Dakota State University in 1990. His Wisconsin investigations expanded to the prairies of North Dakota and to British Columbia to collaborate on other populations of Cooper's Hawks. He has also conducted research on the possible effects of forest fragmentation on breeding songbirds. Bob has served as a Board Member of the Raptor Research Foundation, and represented this international organization on committees that evaluated the validity of delisting the American Peregrine Falcon, and the proposed listing of the Northern Goshawk, both under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Rosenfield has published over 110 scientific journal articles, monographs, and technical reports on birds, including over 60 on Cooper's Hawks. His work has been covered in numerous media outlets for the public, including Discovery Channel, National Wildlife, Smithsonian Institute, Birder's World, National Geographic, and Sports Afield. He received the William A. Burnham Memorial Award for Arctic Research, and has also been honored with 12 awards at his campus for distinguished service, and excellence in teaching and scholarship. He is widely recognized as the world's authority on the Cooper's Hawk. See less