My Credentials

You might be wondering, Who is Nicholas Komar? And why does he think he can be the first to observe 900 species in the US and its territories? I became a birder 50 years ago, when I was 7 years old. My twin brother (Oliver) and I were introduced to birds in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts, by our birdwatching parents. Birders and birdwatchers are not the same thing. Birdwatchers appreciate birds as part of nature. Birders are birdwatchers who are driven to see as many birds as possible and learn as much as they can about birds. Many birders are competitive. Birders often keep meticulous lists of bird species found in certain geographic regions. Life lists, day lists, county lists, state lists, etc. Young birders like me and my brother often become ornithologists, and that is what we did. My path to becoming an ornithologist was indirect. Before graduating from Newton South High School, I applied to Cornell University where many aspiring ornithologists study. However, my B-level performance in high school did not impress Cornell or three other Ivy League schools. So I attended the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. I graduated 7 years later with an honors degree in Biochemistry. My honors research project was development of a subunit vaccine for Japanese encephalitis virus (a mosquito-borne flavivirus). In 1991, I was accepted to the doctoral program at Harvard University's School of Public Health, in the Division of Biological Sciences. I earned my Science Doctorate in Epidemiology in 1997. My thesis project studied the ecology of another mosquito-borne virus called eastern equine encephalitis virus. This deadly virus lurked in the swamps of southeastern Massachusetts where its natural vertebrate hosts were birds. My project was to determine which birds were responsible for amplifying the virus to epidemic levels. The work at Harvard led to a 25-year research career with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Fort Collins, Colorado, studying the interactions between birds and other mosquito-borne viruses, such as West Nile virus. In 2004, I began to develop signs of early-onset Parkinson's Disease, a progressive neurological disorder that affects movement and cognative abilities due to insufficient dopamine production in the brain's Substantia Nigra. This led to my early retirement in 2022. All along this journey I nurtured my passion for birding. I have 6 months left in my second term as President of Colorado Field Ornithologists. My two kids, Angela and Nick, have left the nest and have careers of their own. My wife Maribel and I are expecting to become grandparents sooner rather than later. This is the one year I can seriously attempt a birding Big Year. In competing for the "Biggest Year in USA Birding", I intend to make my mark "with a bang, not a whimper"