James D. RisingJames D. Rising was born in 1942, and grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. He received degrees from the University of Kansas, receiving his PhD. in 1968. He then did postdoctoral research at Cornell University, studying the ecological physioogy of Black-capped Chickadees and Bullock's and Baltimore orioles, working with the physiologist Dr. Jack Hudson.

In 1969, Jim was hired by the University of Toronto, Department of Zoology, concentrating his research on studies of geographic variation of the Savannah Sparrow, a species that is common throughout most of North America. He also worked on the systematics and geographic variation of sharp-tailed sparrows, and continued his research on hybridization of birds in the Great Plains. Read More Read Less