David Moran became interested in birds in general, and birds of prey in particular, as a young boy. He attended Rye Country Day School in Rye, N.Y., did his preparatory school work at St. George's School in Newport, R.I., and received his A.B. from Princeton University. He took his Ph.D. in biology from Brown University, and went on to do a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard with Professor Keith R. Porter. When Dr. Porter moved his laboratory to the University of Colorado, Dr. Moran migrated westward and joined the faculty there, where he served for 20 years as a research biologist and academic Professor.

The author is presently Scientific Editor of Micron BioSystems, Inc., which produce multimedia audiovisual aids for biomedical education, and is Staff Biologist for Absolutely Wild Animal Studios, a cinema production company specializing in wildlife films. An avid falconer, he is presently Director-At-Large of the North American Falconers' Association, which he joined in 1964, and a member of the British Falconers' Club. Dr. Moran currently divides his time between Boulder, Colorado, and Saratoga, Wyoming. In addition to game-hawking, his passions include fly fishing, sports-car racing, big-game hunting with a black-powder flintlock rifle, surfing with his sons, Dave Jr. and Monty in California, and playing fiddle and mandolin with his friends in the Boulder-based band, "Colorado Country."