User:Giantflightlessbirds

This user helps out newcomers.

This user has publicly declared that he has a conflict of interest regarding these Wikipedia articles: Mike Dickison Development West Coast

This user is a member of the West Coast task force.

This user belongs to Team Critter.

I'm Mike Dickison (mikerove.wiki, Adzebill on BlueSky and Mastodon). I'm a zoologist by training, interested in the evolution of extinct flightless birds such as moa and the conservation of endangered New Zealand insects. I had a previous career as a graphic designer, but have been working in and around museums since 1990.

I've been an active Wikipedian since 2014, beginning with Whanganui Wiki Wednesday while Curator of Natural History at Whanganui Regional Museum. I began providing Wikipedia backup for the Critter of the Week radio show in 2015, and now coordinate a team of volunteers. I spent 2018–2019 as the NZ Wikipedian at Large funded by a WMF Project Grant (during which I invented the models Wikipedian at Large and Wikiblitz) and in 2020, 2022, and 2023 was West Coast Wikipedian at Large. From November 2020 to June 2022 I was Digital Discovery Librarian at the Westland District Library in Hokitika, New Zealand. I received a Paul Reynolds ("No Numpties") Scholarship to spend September 2022 in Europe researching the use of OpenRefine in GLAM institutions. As of 2024 I'm Aotearoa Wikipedian at Large based in Christchurch on a grant from Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand.

I'm also a freelance Wikipedia and open-knowledge consultant, helping organisations engage with Wikimedia projects and supporting volunteer activities. In my spare time I sketch (my drawings in Commons), go on nature hikes with iNaturalist, and do some amateur entomology.