Timeline of ornithology

The following is a timeline of ornithology events:

BC up

*1500-800 BC - The Vedas mention the habit of brood parasitism in the Asian Koel ("Eudynamys scolopacea"). (Ali, S. (1979), Bird study in India : its history and its importance. ICCR, New Delhi. Azad Memorial Lectures.)
*4th century BC - Aristotle mentions over 170 sorts of birds in his work on animals. He recognises eight principal groups
*1st century - Pliny the Elder's "Historia Naturalis Book X" is devoted to birds. Three groups based on feet characteristics
*2nd century - Aelian mentions a number of birds in his work on animals. Birds are listed alphabetically
*1037 Death of Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn ibn Abd Allah ibn Sina (known as Avicenna in Latin) author of “Abbreviatio de animalibus,” a homage to Aristotle
*1220 Books on birds and other animals by Aristotle and Avicenna translated into Latin for the first time by Michael Scot
*1250 Death of Frederick II von Hohenstaufen, Holy Roman Emperor, and author of “de Arte Venandi cum Avibus” that describes the first manipulative experiments in ornithology and the methods of falconry
*1478 - "De Avibus" by Albertus Magnus is printed, which mentions many bird names for the first time
*1485 - First dated copy of "Ortus sanitatis" by Johannes de Cuba
*1544 - William Turner prints a commentary of the birds mentioned by Aristotle and Pliny
*1555 - Conrad Gessner's "Historic Animalium qui est de Auium natura" and Pierre Belon's (Bellonius) "Histoire de la nature des Oyseaux". Belon lists birds according to a definite system
*1573 - Volcher Coiter publishes his first treatise on bird anatomy
*1591 - Joris Hoefnagel starts to work for Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor and produces for him 90 oil-base paints, of which one is of the Dodo.
*1600 - Beginning of the publication of the works of Ulisse Aldrovandi on birds.
*1603 - Caspar Schwenckfeld publishes the first regional fauna of Europe: "Therio-tropheum Silesiae".
*1605 - Clusius publishes "Exoticorum libri decem" in which he describes many new exotic species.
*1638 - Georg Marcgraf begins a voyage to Brazil where he studies the fauna and flora.
*1655 - Ole Worm collects a famous cabinet of curiosities whose illustrated inventory appears in 1655, "Museum Wormianum". This collection comprises many birds but the techniques of conservation are not successful and they are quickly destroyed by insects.
*1657 - Publication of "Historiae naturalis of avibus" by John Jonston.
*1667 - Christopher Merrett publishes the first fauna of Great Britain, followed two years later by that of Walter Charleton.
*1676 - Publication of Francis Willughby's "Ornithologia" by his collaborator John Ray. This is considered the beginning of scientific ornithology in Europe, revolutionizing ornithological taxonomy by organizing species according to their physical characteristics
*1681 - The last Dodo dies on the island of Mauritius

18th Century

*1731-1743 - Mark Catesby publishes his "Natural History of Carolina", which contains coloured plates of the birds of that colony, Florida and the Bahamas
*1735 - First edition of Carolus Linnaeus' "Systema Naturae". The classification of birds follows that of Ray
*1741 - Georg Steller studies the birds of the north Pacific on his voyage with Vitus Bering
*1743 - George Edwards begins publication of his bird plates
*1760 - Mathurin Jacques Brisson's six-volume "Ornithologie" improves upon Linnaeus' classification
*1768-1780 - Voyages of James Cook to the Pacific and Australia during which many birds new to science are collected by Joseph Banks and Johann Reinhold Forster
*1770-1783 - Buffon's "Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux" was the first work to take into account the geographical distribution of birds
*1776 - Francesco Cetti publishes "Uccelli di Sardegna"
*1778 - Juan Ignacio Molina publishes "Saggio sulla storia naturale del Chile" which includes the first descriptions of many South American species
*1785 - John Latham completes his "Synopsis of Birds", which describes many birds collected in Australia and the Pacific Ocean. Thomas Pennant publishes "Arctic Zoology".
*1788 - Johann Friedrich Gmelin commences work on the 13th edition of "Systema Naturae" which includes the classification of many birds for the first time, especially those described by Latham
*1788 “de Arte Venandi cum Avibus” by Frederick II (d. 1250) published and compared favorably to contemporary science by Blasius Merrem and Johan Gottlobb Schneider
*1789 - Publication of Gilbert White's "Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne"
*1797 - François Le Vaillant begins publication of his "Oiseaux d'Afrique" giving details of species encountered on his exploration of South Africa
*1797 -1804 - Publication of Thomas Bewick's "British Birds"

19th Century

*1801 - Alexander Wilson begins his study of North American birds, resulting in his "American Ornithology" (1808-1814), later updated by Charles Lucien Bonaparte
*1802 - Publication of George Montagu's "Ornithological Dictionary"
*1811 - Publication of Peter Simon Pallas' "Zoographia Russo-Asiatica" includes details of the birds encountered in his journeys through Siberia
*1815 - Coenraad Jacob Temminck publishes his "Manuel d'ornithologie", the standard work on European birds for many years
*1827-1838 - Publication of John James Audubon's "Birds of America"
*1831-1836 - Charles Darwin travels to South America and the Galapagos Islands on board HMS Beagle. His study of Galapagos finches gives him ideas on natural selection
*1832 - Edward Lear publishes "Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae"
*1838 - John Gould travels to Australia with his wife Elizabeth to study the birds of that country
*1840 - John Gould publishes the first part of "The Birds of Australia"
*1844 - The last Great Auk is recorded in Iceland
*1857 - Philip Sclater presents his paper "On the General Geographical Distribution of the Members of the Class Aves" to the Linnean Society
*1858 - Alfred Newton forms the British Ornithologists' Union
*1861 - Fossil of archaeopteryx found in Germany supports link between dinosaurs and birds
*1868 - Association for the Protection of Seabirds formed in England
*1869 - The Seabirds Protection Act is the first law passed in the United Kingdom to protect birds
*1873 - Publication of "Ornitologia Italiana" by Paolo Savi
*1879 - Richard Owen publishes the results of his studies of Moa fossils
*1883 - Foundation of the American Ornithologists' Union
*1883 - Foundation of the Bombay Natural History Society
*1884 - First International Ornithological Congress held in Vienna, with Gustav Radde as President
*1888 -Max Fürbringer uses a mathematical analysis to create a classification system for birds that influences avian taxonomy throughout the 20th century
*1889 - Foundation of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds to campaign against the plumage trade
*1889 - Ludwig Koch makes the first sound recording of birdsong, that of a captive White-rumped Shama "Copsychus malabaricus"
*1899 - Christian Mortensen of Viborg, Denmark is the first ornithologist to undertake systematic large-scale ringing. He uses numbered aluminium rings to mark 165 Starlings caught in nestboxes

Twentieth century

*1901 - Johannes Thienemann establishes "Vogelwarte Rossitten" (now Rybachy), the world's first bird observatory
*1901 - The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union established
*1905 - Foundation of the National Audubon Society
*1907 - The monthly journal "British Birds" begins publication
*1909 - First organised ringing schemes in the UK
*1909 - A bird observatory is established at Heligoland by Hugo Weigold. Birds are collected in specially designed wire-netting traps, still known today as "Heligoland traps"
*1909 - First known mapping census carried out in Kent, England by the Alexander brothers
*1910-1911 - BOU expedition to Dutch New Guinea
*1912 - A Barn Swallow ringed by James Masefield in Staffordshire, England is recovered in Natal, South Africa
*1914 - The last Passenger Pigeon dies in Cincinnati Zoo
*1922 - Foundation of the International Council for Bird Preservation (now Birdlife International)
*1922 - Publication of John Charles Phillips's "A Natural History of the Ducks", which provides maps of the known breeding and wintering distributions of ducks throughout the world
*1922 William Rowan tests the effect of photoperiodism on the size of gonads in birds
*1928 - Ernst Mayr leads the first of three expeditions to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, during which he discovers many new species
*1930 - Alexander Wetmore publishes his "Systematic Classification"
*1931 - Ernst Schüz and Hugo Weigold publish "Atlas des Vogelzuges", the first atlas of bird migration
*1932 - Foundation of the British Trust for Ornithology for the study of birds in Britain
*1934 - Roger Tory Peterson publishes his "Guide to the Birds", the first modern field guide
*1935 - Konrad Lorenz publishes his study of imprinting in young ducklings and goslings
*1937 - Margaret Morse Nice publishes "Studies in the Life History of the Song Sparrow"
*1938 - Foundation of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology
*1943 - David Lack makes calculations of bird mortality using reports of ringed birds
*1946 - Peter Scott founds the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge

20th Century late

*1950 - Rocket nets developed by the Wildfowl Trust for catching geese
*1951-1954 - The 6-volume "Birds of the Soviet Union" by GP Dementev and NA Gladkov published
*1953 - Niko Tinbergen publishes "The Herring Gull's World"
*1954 - Protection of Birds Act in the UK prohibits the collection of birds eggs
*1956 - First use of mist nets (invented in Japan) in the UK to trap birds
*1962 - Rachel Carson publishes "Silent Spring", describing the ecological dangers of pesticides
*1967 - Publication of "Radar Ornithology" by Eric Eastwood
*1968-1972 - First national breeding bird atlas project conducted in Britain and Ireland
*1970 - The "Atlas of Breeding Birds of the West Midlands" by Lord and Munns, based on field work by members of the West Midland Bird Club, published by Collins, is the first to use systematic grid-based method for gathering of information.
*1976 - Publication of national atlases for Great Britain and Ireland, France and Denmark
*1981 - Sibley and Ahlquist use DNA-DNA hybridisation to determine degrees of genetic similarity between species
*1981 - Cyril A. Walker describes the Enatiornithes, a new subclass of fossil birds [Walker CA (1981) New subclass of birds from the Cretaceous of south America. Nature 292:51-53.]
*1984 - Publication of "The Atlas of Australian Birds"
*1989 - Discovery of the first poisonous bird, the Hooded Pitohui "Pitouhi dichrous" and Homobatrachotoxin by Jack Dumbacher
*1991 - First new species described without a skin as a type specimen. The Bulo Burti Boubou ("Laniarius liberatus") of Somalia described as a new species on the basis of the DNA sequence from a feather.
*1992 - Publication of the "Handbook of Birds of the World" series starts
*1995 - Hou Lianhai describes the Confuciusornithes, a new subclass of birds, from a fossil found in the Jinzhou market, Liaoning, China [Hou L, Zhou Z, Martin L, Feduccia A (1995) A beaked bird from the Jurassic of China. Nature 277:616-618]
*1997 - Use of stable Hydrogen isotope signatures in feathers to identify origin of birds. [Chamberlain CP, Blum JD, Holmes RT, Feng X, Sherry TW, Graves GR (1997) The use of isotope tracers for identifyingpopulations of migratory birds. Oecologia 109:132–141]
*1998 - Discovery of gut reduction before migration in Godwits. [Piersma T, Gill RE (1998) Guts don't fly: small digestive organs in obese bar-tailed godwits. Auk 115:196–203]

21st Century

*2004 - Proposal to identify bird species through DNA sequence by Hebert PDN "et al." (PLoS Biol 2(10): e312.) using method termed as DNA barcoding.
*2005 - reports of sightings of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, previously believed extinct.

ee also

*List of years in birding and ornithology