Philip Unitt receives the Harry S. Swarth Award from Kimball Garrett and Lori Hargrove. Photo: Thomas A. Blackman

WFO established the Harry S. Swarth Award in 2011. The award honors a body of work that significantly advances field ornithology in the West. The award’s name commemorates Harry S. Swarth (1878–1935), a giant of field ornithology who worked in much of western North America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and who contributed more than 200 publications to the scientific literature. WFO presented the Harry S. Swarth Award to Philip Unitt on October 12, 2024, at the 48th Annual Conference in San Diego, California.

Phil is the Dennis and Carol Wilson Endowed Chair of Ornithology and curator of the Department of Birds and Mammals at the San Diego Natural History Museum. He has published more than 60 papers on the distribution, ecology, identification, and conservation of birds in California and Mexico. He is a specialist in subspecies identification, distribution, and the history of distributional change in birds. Phil has led large survey projects, organizing hundreds of volunteers; analyzed and interpreted extensive data sets; and prepared more than 5,000 bird specimens.

Phil’s many publications include The Birds of San Diego County (1984), Birds of the Salton Sea: Status, Biogeography, and Ecology (with Michael A. Patten and Guy McCaskie, 2003), and San Diego County Bird Atlas (2004). He served on the technical advisory committee for the revision and publication of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s California Bird Species of Special Concern, published as volume 1 of WFO’s series Studies of Western Birds. In addition to serving on the technical advisory committee, Phil wrote six of the species accounts, including those for the Gray Vireo, Catalina Hutton’s Vireo, Clark’s Marsh Wren, San Diego Cactus Wren, Grasshopper Sparrow, and Summer Tanager.

Phil has been the editor of Western Birds since 1986, a remarkable 38 years. As the regional journal of ornithology for western North America, Western Birds has been at the center of WFO’s mission since its founding. As editor, Phil has had a positive influence on the development of scores of ornithologists, extending his influence far beyond that of his own ornithological work.

WFO congratulates Philip Unitt, recipient of the Harry S. Swarth Award, for his distinguished body of work in field ornithology. The Board was delighted that this award was presented in Phil’s native San Diego, with many of his closest colleagues in attendance.

Thank you to Kimball Garrett and Lori Hargrove for their contributions to this article, and to Kimball and Lori for presenting the award to Phil.