Dwight Chamberlain, 68, Crow Expert
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Dwight Chamberlain, an authority on crows and ravens, died Saturday at 68.
Chamberlain, who grew up in New York earned his master’s degree in wildlife management at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
His master’s thesis identified 11 crow calls, all of which he could imitate.
By his mid-30s, Chamberlain was such an expert on the birds that he appeared as the nation’s “foremost authority on crows” on the television show “To Tell the Truth” in 1977.
He also appeared on the children’s TV show “Captain Kangaroo” with his pet raven, Rolph, which he had trained to say “Come here” and “Hi, Rolph.”
Chamberlain moved to southern Indiana in 1977, where he became a naturalist at Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge. He also taught biology at Hanover College. Over the years, his expertise in mimicking bird calls earned him numerous crow-calling and owl-calling titles.
A longtime philanthropist, Chamberlain donated about $70,000 to Scott County causes last year alone.
Hardy Lake in Scottsburg named its raptor center for him in 2003 after he donated money for buildings, cages, veterinary supplies and care for injured birds.
