Othmar Reiser or Otmar Rajzer (21 December 1861 – 31 March 1936, Pickern) was an Austro-Slovenian

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

and naturalist who worked as curator of the bird collections in the natural history museum at

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

, working there from its foundation for thirty-three years during which he explored various regions including the Balkans and South America and collected specimens. Several species have been named after him.

Biography

Reiser was born in Vienna, son of a well known lawyer, Otmar Reiser sr. whose namesake father was a well-known mayor of

Maribor Maribor ( , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is the seat of the ...

. He studied at the local gymnasium, at Novo Mesto (matriculating in 1882) and then joined as a reserve lieutenant in the 47th Infantry Regiment. He then went to the College of Agriculture in Vienna (graduating in 1887). He was involved in founding the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in

and then joined its department of Natural History and worked there until retirement in 1919. He worked at the ornithological observatory at Ljubljana and studied Balkan birds. He also studied the birds of Sarajevo and contributed specimens to the Maribor Museum. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Graz in 1932. His collections of eggs and bird skins were donated to the museum in Sarajevo. Reiser exhibited his collections at the 1891 International Ornithological Congress in Budapest, at the Millenium Exhibition, Budapest and at the international hunting exhibition in Vienna (1910). He took part in expeditions to Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece, Brazil, and Serbia. He also collected plants and was in charge of the herbarium after the death of the botanist Franz Fiala. In 1903 he took part in an expedition of the

Austrian Academy of Sciences The Austrian Academy of Sciences (; ÖAW) is a legal entity under the special protection of the Republic of Austria. According to the statutes of the Academy its mission is to promote the sciences and humanities in every respect and in every fi ...

to north-east

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, during which he was the first to observe the

Spix's macaw Spix's macaw (''Cyanopsitta spixii''), also known as the little blue macaw, is a macaw species that was Endemism, endemic to Brazil. It is a member of tribe Arini (tribe), Arini in the subfamily Arinae (Neotropical parrots), part of the family ...

in the wild since its original discovery 84 years earlier.

Works

*''Bericht über die Besichtigungen des Spix-Aras bei Paranaguá in Piauí während der Expedition der K.u.K Akademie der Wissenschaften im Jahre 1903'' *''Die VogelSammlung des bosnischhercegowin'' Landesmuseums in Sarajevo, Budapest (1891) *''Bericht über die botanische Ergebnisse meiner naturwissenschaftlichen Sammelreisen in Serbien in den Jahren 1899 u. 1900'' (1905) *''Materialen zu einer Ornis Balcanica'' Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien (1939) *''Die Vögel von Marburg an der Drau. Nebst Erinnerungen an den steierischen Ornithologen Eduard Seidensacher, Graz 1925.''

References

External links

* 1861 births 1936 deaths Austrian ornithologists Scientists from Austria-Hungary {{ornithologist-stub