James D. Paruk is one of the world’s leading experts on the Common Loon: he has studied breeding loons and wintering loons in several states and in Canada for almost thirty years. After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, he studied the health and recovery of wintering loons in Louisiana for Earthwatch Institute. He has served as vice president of the North American Loon Fund and chair of the research committee for LoonWatch, the flagship program of the Sigurd Olson Research Institute at Northland College in Wisconsin. He is associate professor of biology at St. Joseph’s College, adjunct professor of biology at the University of Southern Maine, and adjunct senior research scientist at the Biodiversity Research Institute in Portland, Maine.