Niels Krabbe

Niels Kaare Krabbe (born 1 July 1951) is a Danish ornithologist and bird conservationist for many years based at the Vertebrate Department of the Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen and tutored by Jon Fjeldså. His research interests include various aspects of ornithology, especially bioacoustics, conservation, and systematics and altitudinal replacements of Scytalopus tapaculos. He has worked extensively in the Andes, especially Ecuador, and wrote the passerine section of Birds of the High Andes (1990) and the accounts of most Andean species in Threatened Birds of the Americas (1992). He has helped build up a large tissue collection in the Zoological Museum and has authored or coauthored several bioacoustic publications and peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals.

Since 1998 he has worked with Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco on conservation of Ecuadorian birds, paying special attention to the pale-headed brush-finch (Atlapetes pallidiceps), for which he had searched for several years. The species was feared extinct, but he finally found a small population in 1998. Only 10–22 pairs remained, but owing to conservation efforts, it is now recuperating, with c. 100 pairs counted since 2009, when the reserve became saturated with territories.