Christian Érard
Christian Érard was a French ecologist and ornithologist.
Érard was born in Hennezel and became interested in the birds of the forests of his native Vosges. From 1956 to 1960, he completed his training at the École Normale Supérieure in Châlons-sur-Marne, during which time he worked at the Center for Research on the Migration of Mammals and Birds at the National Museum of Natural History. In 1961, he became a professor, obtained the Certificate of Higher Studies in Science in Physics, Chemistry and Natural History at the University of Reims the same year and performed his military service from 1961 to 1963. He obtained certificates in general botany, plant biology and microbiology, as well as biology in Paris in 1963. The same year he was appointed professor in general secondary schools. In 1964, he became an assistant at the chair of zoology at the National Museum of Natural History, attached to the CRMMO. From 1966, he began a long series of trips abroad, which took him to many countries in Africa, the Middle East, Guyana, the United States and Canada. In 1975, he was appointed deputy head of the Department of Zoology. In 1989, he received his PhD in Natural Sciences from the University of Rennes 1 with a thesis entitled "Socio-ecology of Muscicapinae in the forest regions of northeastern Gabon." In 1990, he was appointed professor. In 1998, he joined the Functioning, Evolution, and Regulatory Systems of Tropical Forest Ecosystems unit at the CNRS. That same year, he became director of the General Laboratory of Ecology at the National Museum of Natural History.
He focused on the study of bird migration and behavior in tropical regions, plant-animal relationships, and avian systematics, with a particular focus on African and Neotropical passerines.
He described the Western red-billed hornbill along with Bernard Tréca, as well as several sub-species :Glaucidium castaneum etchecopari of the African barred owletMirafra gilletti degodiensis of Gillett's larkMirafra gilletti arorihensisApalis flavida abyssinica of the yellow-breasted apalisCurruca lugens griseiventris of the brown parisoma