Christopher W. Swarth is a retired animal ecologist and educator. He holds a BS in zoology from Humboldt State University and an MS in biology from California State University, East Bay. For over two decades he was director of the Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary in Maryland, where he trained volunteer naturalists and carried out long-term research studies of wetlands, breeding songbirds, and reptiles. Swarth has also studied birds in arctic Alaska, west Africa, Hudson Bay, and throughout California. He has served on a number of Audubon Society boards and is currently an active volunteer with the Western Field Ornithologists.