Source: Wilson Ornithological Society

• 1997 – Elsie Collias and Nick Collias (University of California, Los Angeles), "Seeking to understand the living bird"
• 1998 – Ellen Ketterson and Val Nolan (Indiana University), "Studying birds: one species at a time"
• 1999 – Frances C. James
• 2000 – Susan M. Smith
• 2001 – Glen E. Woolfenden
• 2002 – Richard T. Holmes
• 2003 – Robert E. Ricklefs
• 2004 – Stephen T. Emlen
• 2005 – Bridget J. M. Stutchbury and Eugene S. Morton
• 2006 – Gary Stiles
• 2007 – Patricia L. Schwagmeyer and Douglas Mock
• 2008 – Jerome Jackson
• 2009 – Sidney A. Gauthreaux (Clemson University), "Bird movements in the atmosphere: discoveries from radar and visual studies"
• 2010 – Robert B. Payne and Laura Payne (University of Michigan), "Brood parasitism in cuckoos, cowbirds, and African finches"
• 2011 – Richard N. Conner (USDA-Forest Service (retired)), "The ecology of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker, by necessity a multidiscipline study"
• 2012 – Peter R. Grant & B. Rosemary Grant (Princeton University), "A long-term study of Darwin's Finches"
• 2013 – Edward Burtt, Jr. (Ohio Wesleyan University), "From passion to science to the evolution of avian color"
• 2014 – Don Kroodsma (University of Massachusetts-Amherst), "Birdsong: the hour before dawn"
• 2015 – Erica H. Dunn (Environment Canada}, "Bird observatories: Diversity and opportunity"
• 2016 – John C. Wingfield (Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior University of California), "Nomads, pioneers and fugitives: on the move in a capricious world"
• 2017 – Frank R. Moore (University of Southern Mississippi), "Stopover biology of migratory songbirds: challenges, consequences and connections"
• 2018 – Reed Bowman (Archbold Biological Station), "Change on the long-term study of the Florida Scrub-Jay: A fifty-year perspective"
• 2019 – Robert L. Curry (Villanova University), "Transformation of familiar birds into model organisms: what chickadees can teach us"
• 2020 – Bette A. Loiselle (University of Florida) "Three decades of studying Neotropical birds: lessons learned along the way"
• 2021 – Ellen Ketterson (Indiana University) "Long term research on an ordinary extraordinary songbird: the dark-eyed junco"
• 2022 – Chris Rimmer (Executive Director, Vermont Center for Ecostudies) "Bicknell’s Thrush: Scientific surprises and conservation connections across the hemisphere"

• List of ornithology awards