After a study of vertebrate zoology at Charles Sibley in the Cornell University he wrote his dissertation with the title Hybridization in the Flickers (Colaptes) of North America in 1959.
From 1966 until his retirement in 1997 he was Lamont curator of birds at the American Museum of Natural History.
In that position he made expeditions to South America, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific islands.
After the results of this expedition were published in the Wilson Bulletin in 1973 the American public became aware of the threats which brought the Okinawa woodpecker to the verge of extinction.
A planned project to build United States Marine Corps facilities in the Yambaru forest in the northern Okinawa was stopped to protect the woodpecker.