Biography

Fred Shaw Mayer MBE was an Australian ornithologist known for his work in New Guinea, where he was dubbed 'Masta Pisin' in local pidgin or the 'Bird Man'. Mayer spent his early years in Sydney, where he pursued a career as a surveyor after leaving school. This pursuit did not have a lasting attraction for him, though, and he soon left the building industry to follow his interest in natural history, becoming a professional zoological collector. His first collecting expedition was to Southeast Asia, where he returned throughout the 1920s as well as visiting New Guinea. The latter captured his imagination and this is where he concentrated his efforts from the 1930s onwards, chiefly collecting zoological specimens, but also some plants during his 1951 expedition in the Central Highlands of North East New Guinea. One of his major clients was the Rothschild Zoological Museum in Hertfordshire, England (now the Tring branch of the Natural History Museum, London).

From 1953 Mayer managed the aviaries at the Hallstrom Livestock and Fauna Station at Nondugl in Papua New Guinea's Western Highlands (later known as the Nondugl Bird of Paradise Sanctuary). He was also involved in the establishment of the Baiyer River Sanctuary in 1967. His health was failing by now and he made his final collecting trip in 1970, when he went to the Cromwell Mountains in the Huon Peninsula. He retired to Nambour in Queensland, Australia. Mayer was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1971 for his work in aviculture and was also made an Honorary Life Member of the Papua New Guinea Bird Society.

Sources:
W.S. Peckover and G.G. George, 1992, "Obituary: 'Masta Pisin' - The Bird Man of New Guinea, Fred Shaw Mayer MBE 1899-1989', Emu, 92: 250-254
M.J. van Steenis Kruseman, "Cyclopedia of Collectors", Flora Malesiana, online edn:
http://www.nationaalherbarium.nl/FMCollectors/M/MayerFWS.htm, accessed 27 November 2010.

Biography

Fred Shaw Mayer MBE was an Australian ornithologist known for his work in New Guinea, where he was dubbed 'Masta Pisin' in local pidgin or the 'Bird Man'. Mayer spent his early years in Sydney, where he pursued a career as a surveyor after leaving school. This pursuit did not have a lasting attraction for him, though, and he soon left the building industry to follow his interest in natural history, becoming a professional zoological collector. His first collecting expedition was to Southeast Asia, where he returned throughout the 1920s as well as visiting New Guinea. The latter captured his imagination and this is where he concentrated his efforts from the 1930s onwards, chiefly collecting zoological specimens, but also some plants during his 1951 expedition in the Central Highlands of North East New Guinea. One of his major clients was the Rothschild Zoological Museum in Hertfordshire, England (now the Tring branch of the Natural History Museum, London).

From 1953 Mayer managed the aviaries at the Hallstrom Livestock and Fauna Station at Nondugl in Papua New Guinea's Western Highlands (later known as the Nondugl Bird of Paradise Sanctuary). He was also involved in the establishment of the Baiyer River Sanctuary in 1967. His health was failing by now and he made his final collecting trip in 1970, when he went to the Cromwell Mountains in the Huon Peninsula. He retired to Nambour in Queensland, Australia. Mayer was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1971 for his work in aviculture and was also made an Honorary Life Member of the Papua New Guinea Bird Society.

Sources:
W.S. Peckover and G.G. George, 1992, "Obituary: 'Masta Pisin' - The Bird Man of New Guinea, Fred Shaw Mayer MBE 1899-1989', Emu, 92: 250-254
M.J. van Steenis Kruseman, "Cyclopedia of Collectors", Flora Malesiana, online edn:
http://www.nationaalherbarium.nl/FMCollectors/M/MayerFWS.htm, accessed 27 November 2010.