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

Ornithologist’s Day dates back to February 19, 1983, when the All-Union Ornithological Society was created under the USSR Academy of Sciences, which in 1992 was renamed the Menzbier Ornithological Society (IOO) under the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN). The society is named after the famous Russian and Soviet zoologist and zoogeographer, founder of Russian ornithology, academician Mikhail Aleksandrovich Menzbir.

Specialists from 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 (“Imperial St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists”).

In the gardens of the Russian Museum, bird observations have been carried out annually for 10 years and their numbers are recorded. Regular feeding in winter, work on hanging and caring for artificial nesting boxes has been organized. The results of the work being carried out are an increase in the species composition of birds (from 20 species in 2013 to 38 species in 2023, of which 14 species nest).

We express our gratitude to the staff of St. Petersburg State University M.S. for consultation and participation in the study of birds. 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, A.L. Tsvei, 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 with restoration.