Smithsonian Bird Expert Paul Slud, 87

Paul Slud, 87, an expert on tropical ecology who spent years studying the birds of Costa Rica, died Feb. 20 at his home in Catlett, Va. He had cancer.

Mr. Slud was an associate curator in the bird division at the National Museum of Natural History from 1964 until his retirement in 1983. He previously had been a research associate in the department of ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Soon after joining the Smithsonian Institution, Mr. Slud traveled to Costa Rica as part of a research project assisting the Army on bioecological classification for military environments. An important objective of the Army project was to study a variety of habitats in detail to classify and predict plant formations and the distribution of birds.

Mr. Slud was the author of several scientific works including "The Birds of Finca La Selva" (1960), a survey of tropical rain forest birds in the northeastern Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica. His other works included "The Birds of Costa Rica: Distribution and Ecology"(1964), a comprehensive report on the country's bird life based on seven years of specimen collections and field observations. The study identified 758 species of birds.

He also wrote "The Birds of Cocos Island"(1967), a checklist of birds he observed while spending three months on an uninhabited volcanic island in the eastern Pacific Ocean midway between Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands. The island, steeply sloped and covered with a dense tropical forest, is rich in bird life.

Mr. Slud was born in New York and received a bachelor's degree in geography from the City College of New York. He received a PhD in zoology from the University of Michigan in 1960.

He was a 1961 research fellow with the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He was elected a member of the American Ornithologists' Union in 1962.

He lived in the Washington area since the mid-1960s, first in Arlington and then in McLean. He moved to Catlett, in Fauquier County, in 1987.

Survivors include his wife of 42 years, Barbara Slud of Catlett; two children, Michael Slud of North Potomac and Martha Slud Graybow of New York; and four grandchildren.