Person

Mason, Ian James

Occupation
Ornithologist, Preparator and Zoological collector

Summary

Ian Mason is a skilled collector and preparator who joined the Australian National Wildlife Collection (ANWC) in 1988. From 1998 he was responsible for the management of the oological specimens. Before joining ANWC he was a faunal surveyor with the CSIRO Division of Wildlife Research (and Ecology). He participated in surveys in the Northern Territory (Kakadu, and the Daly, Macarthur and Nicholson Rivers), Queensland (Shoalwater Bay) and New South Wales (Macquarie Marshes and Jervis Bay). Other fieldwork was in1973 with Richard Schodde in Papua New Guinea; and in East Timor in 1974, where he collected several hundred bird specimens which he brought to Australia with the help of John McKean. Between 1988 and 1994 he was involved in surveys for the ANWC, mostly in southeast Australia, including Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands.

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Details

Chronology

1970 - 1980
Career position - Fauna Surveyor, CSIRO Division of Wildlife Research
1980 - 1988
Career position - Fauna Surveyor, CSIRO Division of Wildlife and Ecology
1981
Award - Whitley Medal (with Richard Schodde, for Nocturnal birds of Australia), Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales
1988 -
Career position - Preparator (later Chief Preparator), Australian National Wildlife Collection

Published resources

Books

  • Mason, Ian J, and Scrambler, Elinor C., A review of bird specimens (egg clutches and study skins) collected by William Rae McLennan (1882 - 1935) (Canberra: Ian J. Mason, 2024), 453 pp, https://www.ianmason.online/. Details
  • Mason, Ian J. , Scrambler, Elinor C. and Johannessen, Lars E., A review of biological specimens collected in northern Australia by Knut Dahl (1871 - 1951) (Canberra: Ian J. Mason, 2025), 229 pp. Details
  • Mason, Ian J.; and Pfitzner, Gilbert H., Passions in ornithology: a century of Australian egg collectors (Canberra: Ian J. Mason, 2020), 572 pp. Details
  • Schodde, R. and Mason, I. J., Aves (Columbidae to Coraciidae) (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1997), 440 pp. Details
  • Schodde, R., and I. J. Mason, Nocturnal birds of Australia (Melbourne: Lansdowne Editions, 1980), 136 pp. Details
  • Schodde, R., and I. J. Mason, The directory of Australian birds: passerines (Collingwood, Vic.: CSIRO Publishing, 1999), 851 pp. Details

Helen Cohn

Created: 20 October 2026

EOAS ID: biogs/P008182b.htm

This Edition: 2026 August - Bibliographies
Larneuk - Gariwerd calendar - Pre-spring: late July to August - season of nesting birds
Reference: https://www.bom.gov.au/resources/indigenous-weather-knowledge/indigenous-seasonal-calendars/gariwerd-calendar#bom-anchor-list__item-larneuk-season-of-nesting-birds

Publisher: Swinburne University of Technology.

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