Mihkel Härms

He worked at the zoological museum of the University of Tartu and became the first professional ornithologist in Estonia.

He learned to collect and preserve natural history specimens as an eighteen year old from Ernst von Middendorff (1851–1916) and by 1820 the 4000 specimens of the bird collection held in Hellenurme manor came under his care.

Along with Middendorf and later on his own he conducted bird surveys to Matsalu Bay (1897), Kuramaa (1898), Northwest Estonia and the Pakri Islands (1898), Arkhangelsk Governorate (1899), Trans-Caspia, Turkestan and Eastern Persia (1900-01).

He met and worked with Nikolai Zarudny and corresponded with many other ornithologists around Europe.

In 1921 he was involved, along with Johannes Piiper, in the establishment of the Estonian ornithological society in collaboration with the university rector Heinrich Koppel who was married to his sister Sophie Härms.