Education
Hawkesbury Agricultural College. Cornell University.
Hawkesbury Agricultural College. Cornell University.
Richdale"s main ornithological interest was in seabirds, especially penguins and petrels, and he was engaged in long-term studies of various species for most of his life. He was the driving force to gain protection for the colony of northern royal albatrosses at Taiaroa Head, Otago, after discovering the first successful fledgling there in 1938. Although his fieldwork was carried out in southern New Zealand, he spent some time studying overseas, as a Fulbright Fellow at Cornell University (1950–1951), as a Nuffield Research Fellow at the Edward Grey Institute for Bird Research (1952–1955) and, after retirement, again as a Nuffield Fellow, at the Zoological Society of London (1960–1963).
He produced a series of popular booklets about New Zealand birds as well as a series of biological monographs to publish the results of his research.
In addition, he authored two major books, Sexual Behavior in Penguins (University of Kansas Press, 1951), and A Population Study of Penguins (Clarendon Press, 1957). He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to ornithology in the 1982 Queen"s Birthday Honours.
Richdale died in Auckland in 1983.
He was a member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) and contributed numerous papers to its journal, the Emu as well as to several other scientific journals.