Donald J. Brightsmith is a Professor of Ecosystem Health in the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology and the Schubot Avian Health Center at Texas A&M University. He holds a Ph.D. in Zoology from Duke University, an M.S. in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Arizona, and a B.S. in Natural Resources from Cornell University and is author of over 75 scholarly works. He has worked and collaborated on projects in Peru, Costa Rica, Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Indonesia, and throughout the US. His specialties are tropical ecology, ornithology and wildlife conservation, especially topics related to wild and captive parrots. He has worked on parrots in Peru since 1993 and run The Macaw Society/Sociedad pro Guacamayo (formerly the Tambopata Macaw Project) since 1999. His research has focused on a wide variety of topics including parrot conservation, reintroduction, illegal wildlife trade, clay lick use, nesting, movements, and habitat use. He also conducts research on captive parrots, parrot enrichment and wild Red-crowned Parrots in Texas. As an advisor to government and private parrot conservation projects he is helping put his knowledge to work for the benefit of wild parrots.