On February 19, Russia celebrates Ornithologist’s Day – a professional holiday for people who study birds and teach us how to take care of them. Congratulations to all participants in ornithological research in the gardens of the Russian Museum.

The Day of the Ornithologist has its history since February 19, 1983, when the All-Union Ornithological Society was created at the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, since 1992 it was renamed the Menzbeer Ornithological Society (MOO) at the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). The Society is named after the famous Russian and Soviet zoologist and zoogeographer, founder of Russian ornithology, academician Mikhail Alexandrovich Menzbir.

Specialists in the gardens of the Russian Museum are members of the St. Petersburg Ornithological Society, which is a section of the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists, founded in 1868 (the “Imperial St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists”).

In the gardens of the Russian Museum for 10 years, bird observations have been carried out annually and their numbers have been recorded. Organized regular feeding in the winter, work on hanging and caring for artificial nests. The results of the ongoing work is an increase in the species composition of birds (from 20 species in 2013 to 36 species in 2021, of which 14 species nest).

We express our gratitude for the consultation and participation in the study of birds to the staff of St. Petersburg State University M.S. Berezantseva and N.P. Iovchenko, specialists of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences – V.M. Brave, V.A. Paevsky, V.G. Vysotsky, as well as employees of the St. Petersburg State Forestry University L.N. Shcherbakova, who participated in the research of the Summer Garden before its restoration, and V.V. Masaitis, who assisted in ornithological research at our initial stage in the year after the opening of the Summer Garden from the restoration.