Carl Wüstnei (19 September 1843 – 21 December 1902) was a German ornithologist, engineer, and artist.
Wüstnei was born in Schelfstadt, Schwerin where his father Karl Georg Gustav Wüstnei (1810-1858, a fungus Wuestneia is named after him) was a teacher, theologian and naturalist.
His father died when he was young and he then went to the Brockelmanns iron foundry as an apprentice.
Subsequently, his education was supported by Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II in 1867 and he went to study at the Königliche Gewerbeakademie zu Berlin (predecessor of Technische Universität Berlin).
In 1901, he produced statistics on the nesting of white storks in the region in collaboration with Gustav Clodius.