A dedicated and outspoken conservationist who worked to save Bermuda’s bluebirds from the edge of extinction was also a singer and composer with an irreverent wit.

Tommy Outerbridge was prominent in the island’s music scene during the 1970s and 1980s, and the leading force at the Bermuda Bluebird Society, which he would expand to include protection for longtails.

It was a cause that nearly cost him his life. Mr Outerbridge spent more than 40 years in a wheelchair, after a serious fall from the cliffs of the South Shore in 1984 left him a quadriplegic.

He wrote of the incident, which happened on Father’s Day while he was digging longtail burrows into the rock: “I was atop a 100-foot cliff near my home when the ledge collapsed and I plummeted to the beach below.

“I broke my neck, my back and my left arm. Upon surfacing from a coma three days later, I was a C5 quadriplegic strapped to a Stryker frame and wearing a halo brace.”

He added: “I now join the actor Christopher Reeve in a quest to be healed and independent.

“However, rather than simply anticipating a cure through medical research, I concentrate on prayer, meditation, visualisation, affirmations, positive thinking and faith.”

He brought his same candour for environmental causes to the island’s lack of access for the physically disabled.

Speaking to The Royal Gazette in 1993, during Access Awareness Week, Mr Outerbridge dismissed the campaign as “a PR scam to smooth our feathers”.

Mr Outerbridge called his wife, Angela, his “human guardian angel”. She met him as his physiotherapist in the Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Britain, which has one of the world’s top specialist spinal units. Their son, Robert, was born in 1992.

In the mid-1990s, they moved to Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, not far from Stoke Mandeville. It was meant to be a six-month stay for medical reasons, but the family settled there.

Mr Outerbridge credited his spirituality with helping him through the gruelling recovery from his fall.

He recalled surprising his family with an early interest in the topic and said his father was “aghast” when he announced his intention to study theology.

In 1976, a family friend introduced him to The Urantia Book, a sprawling, 2,000-page text combining science and religion with an elaborate cosmology. The book had drawn a worldwide following, with admirers including Jimi Hendrix.

Mr Outerbridge took its teachings to heart. In 1995, he was invited to speak at a forum on racism by the National Spiritual Assembly of The Baha'is of Bermuda.

He told attendees: “We need to believe in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. If we accept we are all brothers, our differences will slide away.”

His quest to preserve the island’s dwindling bluebird population was the subject of a documentary in 1983 and earned him an award in 1995 from the Bermuda National Trust.

He was made an honorary life member of the Bermuda Audubon Society in 1997.

The group said: “The Bermuda Audubon Society is saddened to learn of the passing of Tommy Outerbridge. Tommy was awarded a life membership in the BAS because of his outstanding contributions as founder and president of the Bluebird Society.

“Tommy succeeded in greatly increasing public participation in the conservation of the bluebird from the narrow base of a few dedicated bird lovers to a community-wide programme involving a large percentage of private property owners. Tommy’s passion and dedication to the bluebirds and the environment will be greatly missed.”

Mr Outerbridge became known in the early 1980s as a fierce advocate for the birds, a small species of thrush better adapted to pre-colonial Bermuda.

He built their recovery into a national cause alongside environmentalists such as the former government conservation officer David Wingate.

The Bermuda subspecies of the eastern bluebird, Sialia sialis, now an uncommon sight, once thrived enough to form impressive flocks.

Invasive species from the common sparrow to the kiskadee took a heavy toll on their population, and the birds, which feed only on live worms and grubs, plunged in numbers as the island’s open spaces gave way to development and pesticides were used heavily on golf courses and agricultural land.

Determined to turn the tide, Mr Outerbridge built bluebird boxes in his spare time and handed out as many as possible. The protective nests were critical in keeping bluebirds from being wiped out and the island’s schools took up the cause.

Jennifer Gray, a former executive director of the Bermuda National Trust, said: “Tommy was enamoured by the beauty of the birds but also driven by their plight. He could be almost intimidating as an advocate for bird life — but that’s what you need.

“Trying to go up against development on this island is a losing battle but he was not backing down. He was instrumental in making sure the Bluebird Society hung on.

“Tommy was passionate and determined. He saw their demise coming and he was very insightful in wanting to do something.”

Mr Outerbridge’s voice and guitar earned him a following at night clubs and the Bermuda Folk Club. Songs ranged from a heartfelt tribute to bluebirds, his 1983 songMr Bluebird Blue, to more colourful material.

An example of his can-do spirit was seen in 1994, during Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Bermuda, when Mr Outerbridge was invited to meet her at a tree-planting ceremony at Government House.

It turned out that he had corresponded with Buckingham Palace after watching the BBC documentary Elizabeth, which showed the monarch answering letters from everyday people.

Mr Outerbridge decided to give it a try, introducing himself as a Bermudian whose roots could be traced to the early 1600s, and writing of meeting the Duke of Edinburgh while undergoing spinal rehabilitation.

After a reply from Buckingham Palace, he wrote to the Queen again, urging her to intervene to stop the development of Catchment Hill in Hamilton Parish — a hot topic of the day. Mr Outerbridge called for it to be made a national park.

When the Queen wrote back that it was a matter for Bermuda’s own legislators, he reportedly replied that most of the island’s MPs were developers.

He sent her Bermuda books as gifts and treasured a letter from the Queen congratulating him on the birth of his son.

After meeting her in 1994, Mr Outerbridge told the Gazette that the Queen had been “just charming”. He added: “She has a presence about her. Even my wife, who's anti-Royalist, was chuffed.”

Thomas Outerbridge, a staunch conservationist, was born on December 29, 1956. He died in 2025, aged 68