Wayne Petersen, a Massachusetts native, is director of the Massachusetts Important Bird Area (IBA) Program for the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Throughout his career, Wayne has lectured extensively and conducted birding workshops across North America. His tour-leading experiences have taken him from arctic Canada to South America, Iceland, Africa, Madagascar, Antarctica, Australia, and New Zealand.

Wayne is a New England Regional Editor for North American Birds, a founding member of the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee, and for twenty years has written an identification column for Bird Observer magazine. His other writing projects include authoring or co-authoring the National Audubon Society Pocket Guide to Songbirds and Familiar Backyard Birds (East), Birds of Massachusetts, and Birds of New England; co-editing the Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas; and contributing to The Audubon Society Master Guide to Birding, The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior, and Arctic Wings.

In 2005 he received the American Birding Association's Ludlow Griscom Award for outstanding contributions in regional ornithology. Wayne is especially interested in seabirds and shorebirds, and he derives great satisfaction from sharing his knowledge of the natural world with others.