Paul Robert Kollibay (4 July 1863 – 5 November 1919) was a German lawyer and

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 ...

. He specialised in the birds of Upper Silesia and his collection of bird skins is held at the museum of the

University of Wroclaw A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

. Born in

Gorzów Śląski Gorzów Śląski (; ) is a town in Olesno County, Opole Voivodeship, Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in ...

, then called Landsberg, Upper Silesia, Kollibay was the son of a district judge. He went to the local elementary school and then the Gymnasium in Neustadt where he met

Friedrich Kutter Friedrich Kutter (1 October 1834 – 7 March 1891) was a German physician and ornithologist who was among the early adopters of evolutionary thinking in oology, the study of birds' eggs. He served as a president of the German Ornithological Societ ...

(1834–1891) who influenced his interests in birds. He went to Breslau to study law and completed school in 1885. Kollibay became a notary in 1897, a Judicial Councillor in 1910, and a board member of the Bar association in 1917. His work on birds began in 1879, with studies of the species in the

Prussian Province of Silesia The Province of Silesia (; ; ) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1919. The Silesia region was part of the Prussian realm since 1742 and established as an official province in 1815, then became part of the German Empire in 1871. In 1919, as ...

which was published in 1906 with supplements in 1909 and later updated by Anton Reichenow. He became a specialist on the swifts of the region and was honoured in a subspecies ''Apus apus kollibayi'' described by Victor von Tschusi which is now considered synonymous to the nominate form. He was a member of the German Ornithological Society and the

British Ornithologists' Union The British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) aims to encourage the study of birds (ornithology) around the world in order to understand their biology and aid their conservation. The BOU was founded in 1858 by Professor Alfred Newton, Henry Baker ...

. A few subspecies ''Carduelis carduelis paropanisi'', ''Galerida cristata subtaurica'', ''Pisorhina leucotis granti'' were described by Kollibay. Kollibay's collection of 3200 bird skins was purchased by the zoological museum of Breslau University but many specimens were destroyed during the Second World War.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kollibay People from Olesno County German ornithologists 1863 births 1919 deaths 20th-century German lawyers