Ralph Bell

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Ralph Bell is a special person. He’s the epitome of today’s citizen scientist. Only in Ralph’s case, he’s been in the field getting his boots muddy for decades while collecting bird data and doing conservation work. While describing himself as just a “chicken farmer”, Ralph has contributed to ornithology not just in Greene County, where he lives, but in surrounding areas as well.

In addition to always being available to host visiting birders and show them the riches of Greene County, he has banded more than 100,000 birds in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, monitored hundreds of nest boxes, has been a member of various ornithological and birding organizations (AOU, AFO, WOS, PSO, etc.), has researched cowbird parasitism, and has years of service to the Brooks Bird Club.

His untiring field work has contributed much to our understanding of birdlife in the southwestern corner of the state and in neighboring West Virginia.