[4] Prum describes himself as "an evolutionary ornithologist with broad interests in diverse topics, including phylogenetics, behavior, feathers, structural coloration, evolution and development, sexual selection, and historical biogeography.
He then worked at the American Museum of Natural History[5] until 1991, when he became a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas.
[6] After gradually losing his hearing throughout the early 1990s due to illness, Prum moved from primarily doing field work to conducting research on plumage pigmentation, feather evolution, and Darwin's sexual selection theory.
Prum is following Edward Bagnall Poulton, who was criticised by Alfred Russel Wallace for asserting "female preferences based on aesthetic considerations".
[13] In Rothenberg's words, Wallace "had no place for Darwin's love of beauty, caprice, and feminine whim".