Richard Bowdler Sharpe was an English zoologist and ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of Natural History. In the course of his career he published several monographs on bird groups and produced a multi-volume catalogue of the specimens in the collection of the museum. He described many new species of bird and also has had species named in his honour by other ornithologists including Sharpe's longclaw (macronyx sharpei) and Sharpe's starling (poeopters sharpii). He was Clerk in Charge of the Library at the Zoological Society of London 1867-1872. Sharpe founded the British Ornithologists' Club in 1882 and edited its bulletin. He was a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London and the Linnean Society