William Burt is a naturalist, photographer and writer with a passion for wild places and elusive birds – especially marshes, and the shy birds within. His photographs and stories are seen in Smithsonian, Audubon, National Wildlife and other magazines, and he is author of two distinguished books on birds: Shadowbirds (1994); and Rare and Elusive Birds of North America (2001), based on a 16-year pursuit of America’s 20 most alluring “mystery birds.”

His forthcoming book, Marshes: The Disappearing Edens (Yale University Press, spring 2007), will feature 90 of his photographs, and his story of a search for what remains today of North America’s marshes, one hundred years and more since the old naturalists first described their teeming birds.

Burt’s traveling exhibitions have shown at 26 museums across the U.S. and Canada, including The New Brunswick Museum, The Calgary Science Center, The Liberty Science Center, The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

In 1989, for an exhibition of Burt’s photography of marsh birds, Roger Tory Peterson wrote the following:

William Burt is a perfectionist whose photographs of rails and other shy and elusive birds of the wetlands are unquestionably the finest ever taken. I admire his technical skill and perseverance (14 years) in getting these pictures. He has set a new standard.

Mr. Burt lives in Old Lyme, Connecticut (USA).