James Clements (ornithologist)

{{Short description|American ornithologist, author, and businessman}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2013}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = James Clements

| image =

| alt =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1927|10|31|df=y}}

| birth_place = New York City, United States

| death_date = {{death date and age|2005|6|9|1927|10|31|df=y}}

| death_place = Oceanside, California, United States

| citizenship =

}}

James Franklin Clements (October 31, 1927 – June 9, 2005) was an American ornithologist, author and businessman. He was born in New York, United States.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

He married Mary Norton and they had two sons. His second marriage, which lasted 14 years, was to Christina. He married a third time, to Karen.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

He received his PhD from California Western University in 1975. His thesis became the first edition of his Birds of the World, A Check List (now in its sixth edition). Clements was mostly finished with the sixth edition at the time of his death, and responsibility for the series was taken up by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology (Cornell Lab) by arrangement with Clements's widow, Karen. The Cornell Lab finished the sixth edition, maintains corrections and updates for it, and plans to publish future editions.[http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/preface-to-the-6th-edition Preface to the 6th Edition — Clements Checklist]{{Cite web|url=http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/|title = Downloadable Checklist | Clements Checklist}}

The specific epithet of a bird, the Iquitos gnatcatcher, Polioptila clementsi, is named after him.{{Cite journal|last1=Whitney|first1=Bret M.|last2=Alonso|first2=Jose Alvarez|year=2005 |title=A new species of gnatcatcher from white-sand forests of northern Amazonian Peru with revision of the Polioptila guianensis complex |journal=Wilson Bulletin | volume=117|issue=2|pages=113–127|doi=10.1676/04-064| doi-access=free}}

He died at Tri-City Hospital, Oceanside, California of complications associated with acute myeloid leukemia.