Professor emeritus William John Hamilton III, an internationally recognized research scientist in ecology and animal behavior, died April 24, 2006. He was 74 years old.

A memorial is scheduled for May 27 at the home of family friends near Winters.

Hamilton, who retired in 2005, was the leading authority on the California tri-colored blackbird, a threatened species, and spent the past several years studying the birds throughout the Central Valley for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game.

"Bill delighted in the natural world with a love and sense of wonder that bordered on the ecstatic," said Hamilton's longtime friend, Winters farmer John Anderson.

Hamilton, who lived in rural Winters, joined the UC Davis faculty in 1963 and retired in 1994. He began studying animal ecology in Southern Africa in 1968, chiefly in Botswana and Namibia. Over the decades, he also had research projects in Egypt, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and Indonesia. He was the author of numerous books and articles and taught field ecology courses long after his retirement,