He continued to study birds after entering the City College of New York at 16 years old and maintained a close association with the Museum of Natural History.

[1] While attending City College, Friedmann studied the "Weaving of the Red-Billed Weaver Bird in Captivity" at the Bronx Zoo.

Dr. William Beebe, then Honorary Curator of Birds and Director of the Department of Tropical Research at the zoo, was impressed by the work and encouraged Friedmann to apply for a scholarship to Cornell University.

For the next three years, he spent most of his time in South America and Africa studying parasitic birds on a postdoctoral grant from the National Research Council and Rockefeller Foundation.

[2] In 1955 Friedmann was awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal from the National Academy of Sciences for his book, The Honey Guides.