Ian Wallace (ornithologist)

D. Ian M. Wallace (known as Ian Wallace or D.I.M. Wallace,[1][2][3] or by his initials DIMW; born before 1935[4]) is a British birder, author and artist. He lives in Staffordshire.

D.I.M. Wallace was the second chairman of the British Birds Rarities Committee[5] and was a contributing author to The Birds of the Western Palearctic.

In 1963, Wallace was among a party of birders,[6] led by Guy Mountfort[7] and including Julian Huxley,[7] George Shannon[6] and, James Ferguson-Lees,[6] which made the first ornithological expedition to Azraq in Jordan.[6] The expedition's recommendations eventually led to the creation of the Azraq Wetland Reserve and other protected areas.[8] Papers from the expedition are in the United Kingdom's National Archives.[9] He identified at least four species previously unknown in Nigeria.[10]

He is the Honorary Life President of Flamborough Ornithological Group since 2000), and of Flamborough Bird Observatory.[11]

Wallace has appeared as a guest on BBC Radio 4's Saving Species, discussing his October 1960 observations of the visible migration of birds over London, on their 50th anniversary.[12]

He has been described as "one of the very top ornithologists in the UK",[13] "one of the great names of British bird-watching",[14] by the BBC as "a pioneer of ornithology [in the United Kingdom]",[12] and by Mark Cocker as both "one of the godfathers of modern birding"[4] and "the grand old man of birds".[15]