Edward Charles Stuart Baker CIE OBE FZS FLS (1864 – 16 April 1944) was a British ornithologist and police officer.

He spent most of his career in India in the Assam Police, rising to the rank of Inspector-General commanding the force.

He lost his left arm to a panther (in Silchar, Assam), was tossed by a gaur and trampled by an Indian rhinoceros during various hunting expeditions.

His eight-volume contribution to The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma series became the standard reference work on the subject.

[3] He also served on government advisory committees on the protection of birds and was from 1913 to 1936 honorary secretary and treasurer of the British Ornithologists' Union.

Apart from specimens that he collected or received from others both of eggs and birds, Baker also maintained a small menagerie for a time when he was posted in the North Cachar district.

The animals in his collection included civets, bears, deer and crested serpent eagles, Amur falcons, falconets and woodpeckers.

[4][5] Some of the nest and eggs in his collection have been considered as of dubious provenance and there are suggestions that he artificially made up some of the clutches.

Along the way Baker also began to revise a list of the species found in India based on the work of Hartert for the Palearctic region.

Baker continued to update the list and make corrections and note rarities being reported and on distributions.

[23] Towards the end of his life Baker took a renewed interest in the ecology and evolution of cuckoos and was the topic of his last book in 1942.