Ornithologists study birds in any form and in any habitat, this includes both zoos and natural environments.
Its birth dates back to the earliest years, as it is believed that there is a special interest in learning about birds among people of all times.
Although this interest may not have been formally considered a science, they have always tried to learn about bird behavior, classify them by their sounds, and even test their daily uses, both in medicine and gastronomy.
In fact, the names of birds used today are related to the ways of naming them from ancient times, almost always based on the sounds they made.
There are several books by various famous people of antiquity, like Aristotle, where the presence of ornithological studies available in Greek society is already recognized…
Major research and discoveries made by ornithology
Pierre Belon
In 1555, Pierre Belon made one of the most important works that still has consequences today. He studied and discussed the characteristics of the most popular fish and birds in France.
He wrote the title of the book L’Histoire de la nature des oyseaux, which contains every detail of about 200 species of animals. In addition, he made a comparison between the human skeleton and an aerial animal
William Turner
For his part, the first work on birds done in the British community was written by William Turner, who told about the history of these animals and the main birds that are often found in the cities of this country.
He mentions royal kites and gives everyday examples, such as always wandering the streets and stealing food from children.
On the other hand, he talked about certain myths that exist in this society, such as that fishermen always wanted to kill eagles because they thought they had finished with the fish before…
Francis Willoughby and John Ray
In the last decades of the 16th century, knowledge of ornithology began to be recorded, and although these studies were conducted by “amateurs,” many of these books specifically contributed to the scientific ornithological knowledge of today.
This group includes Francis Willoughby and John Ray, who began to sort and classify each animal based solely on the habits and anatomy of each species, creating a break and difference from the way it had been classified before.
Machurin Jacques Brisson and Georges Louis Leclerc
Two other important figures in research on ornithology in the past and who left great lessons for this branch of zoology were Mathurin Jacques Brisson and Georges Louis Leclerc.
This was responsible for writing a book called Ornithologie in which he devoted six volumes to speak specifically about the various characteristics of the birds best known and observed by him.
He wrote the title of the book Histoire naturelle générale et particulière and there were nine exclusive birds.
François Vaillant
In the nineteenth century, the Frenchman François Le Vaillant was sponsored by Coenraad Jacob Temink, who was dedicated to collecting, studying and further publishing all the features of African birds. The result was a book of six volumes entitled Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d’Afrique.
