Dominic Louis Serventy

Who was Dominic Louis Serventy?

Dr Dominic Louis Serventy was an eminent Perth based Australian ornithologist. He was born at Brown Hill, Western Australia to parents of Croatian origin. He was educated at the University of Western Australia and Cambridge University. He was president of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union 1947-1949. He assisted with the initial organisation of the British Museum's series of Harold Hall Australian ornithological collecting expeditions during the 1960s, also participating in the third expedition.

He was co-author of Birds of Western Australia, and of The Handbook of Australian Sea-birds. He is commemorated by the RAOU's D.L. Serventy Medal which is awarded annually for outstanding published work on birds in the Australasian region.

Dominic and Vincent Serventy are commemorated in the species' epithet of the extinct cormorant Microcarbo serventyorum, described by Gerard Frederick van Tets in 1994.