Olsen, Klaus Malling 1955–

PERSONAL: Born 1955.

ADDRESSES: Home—Denmark. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Princeton University Press, 41 William St., Princeton, NJ 08540-5237. E-mail—calidris@ worldonline.dk.

CAREER: Ornithologist and tour guide in Copenhagen, Denmark.

WRITINGS:

BIRDING GUIDES; ILLUSTRATED BY HANS LARSSON

Terns of Europe and North America, translated by David A. Christie, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1995.

Skuas and Jaegers: A Guide to the Skuas and Jaegers of the World, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1997.

Gulls of North America, Europe, and Asia, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2003.

Contributor to books, including Handbook in Bird Identification for Europe and the Palearctic, by Mark Beaman and Steve Madge, Princeton University Press, 1998.

SIDELIGHTS: Ornithologist Klaus Malling Olsen is the author of several birding guides. Terns of Europe and North America, for one, provides anatomical and species distribution information for twenty-three types of terns. Illustrated with maps and photographs, the book is intended for expert birders. Jeremy J. Hatch, writing in the Quarterly Review of Biology, found some minor problems with the guide, including the occasional misidentification of plumage characteristics of terns at different ages. However, Hatch concluded that the book is "an indispensable aid to tern identification."

Olsen told CA: "I became interested in writing by reading books and papers from fellow birders and realizing that a good deal of the publications could be written in a more personal style. Among writing birdwatchers and ornithologists the work of Lars Svensson has from the 1970s been a great influence—informing on facts in a concise way with equal respect towards amateurs and scientists alike. My writing process was from the start a long and solitary work. First drafts of texts based on my own experience, since added with facts from the literature, before writing the final versions, often supplied with further information based on newer studies of live birds, specimens and photos.

"The most surprising thing I've learned as a writer is how little space is needed to mention the most important information! It is an art to concentrate your material—a kind of alchemy. Also, I have learned that mixing science with influences from the art creates something unique.

"Among the mentioned books I have no real favorite—it could be regarded as a trilogy, but it would for future writers on these aspects be wise to study the concise style of Terns. Favorite among written things is my text to Ssteve Madge and Mark Beaman's Handbook in Bird Identification. It took seven years to concentrate and re-write the clumsy text, but adding new material collected in my vicinity and abroad and concentrating the text to keep much more recent information updating the text was satisfying, although sometimes frustrating.

"I hope that the well motivated amateur will feel inspired to go out in the field and do their own studies, based on the inspiration they hopefully get from my books. Similar to what I have done."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Birdwatch, Volume 14, number 6, 2005, Killian Mullarney, review of Gulls of North America, Europe, and Asia, p. 54.

Quarterly Review of Biology, June, 1997, Jeremy J. Hatch, review of Terns of Europe and North America, p. 210.