Johannes Thienemann

His grandfather had collaborated with Christian Ludwig Brehm and his father attended the first International Ornithologists' Congress at Vienna in 1884.

A church position needed a six-year wait, so he worked as a teacher first at Leipzig and then at the Badersleben Agricultural School.

[1]In 1901 he founded the bird observatory on the Curonian Spit at Rossitten, East Prussia (now Rybachy, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia).

Among Thienemann's attempts was to introduce artificial nest boxes to induce hole-nesting birds to take up residence.

He provided sparrow carcasses for tits to feed on in winter and attempted to use artificial floating nest islands for gulls and encouraged the control of foxes and other predators.

[2] Thienemann distributed rings to others in the region including wealthy land holders, zoologists and hunters, building up a large network of bird ringers.

After 1926 Thienemann reared young storks and released them with announcements on the local radio about them leading to widespread interest in birds and their migration.Thienemann worked with formally trained ornithologists including Oskar Heinroth who served for a while as the official director of the observatory.