History of Ornithology

AbstractBefore the seventeenth century, interest in birds centred largely on folklore and their symbolic significance. Ray and Willughby's encyclopaedia, theOrnithology of Francis Willughby(1676 and 1678) marked a turning point in the study of birds by rejecting folklore and focussing especially on biology. Following Ray'sWisdom of God(1691), which addressed ultimate causes, the study of birds developed along two separate strands: (i) systematics, nomenclature and faunistics (inspired byOrnithology) and (ii) natural history (inspired byWisdom). The first of these endeavours dominated ornithology for the next 250 years, and were the main focus of the ornithological Unions founded in the 1800s. The two strands were reunited in the 1920s (central Europe) and 1940s (the UK and the USA). After World War II not only the expansion of higher education resulted in a huge increase in both the number of professional ornithologists, but also our knowledge of avian natural history and evolution.Key conceptsThe study of birds began with Aristotle, but stagnated between the first centuryadand the Renaissance.Ornithology became scientific with the abandonment of emblematics in the 1670s.John Ray initiated two strands of ornithology: systematics and natural history (field ornithology) in the late 1600s.Systematic ornithology focussed on the naming and classification of birds, and later, their geographical distribution.The natural history of birds (field ornithology) focussed on behaviour, ecology and ultimate causes.Ornithological encyclopedias were a product of the Renaissance.After the Renaissance ornithology became increasingly specialized.Charles Darwin's concepts of natural and sexual selection in the mid‐late 1800s were important in encouraging scientific interest in birds.The two strands of ornithology, systematics and natural history, were re‐united in the 1920s (Germany) and 1940s (the UK and the USA).The modernization of ornithology during the twentieth century occurred largely as a result of the conceptual unification of evolutionary thinking in the 1940s and the focus on individual selection in the 1970s.