Petr Petrovich Sushkin (; 27 January 1868 – 17 September 1928) was a Russian and Soviet based

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 ...

who specialised on comparative anatomy, and evolution of birds, particularly of the birds of prey. Soviet_ornithologists-1924

Sushkin was born in

Tula, Russia Tula (, ) is the largest city and the administrative center of Tula Oblast in Russia, located south of Moscow. Tula is located in the northern Central Russian Upland on the banks of the Upa (river), Upa River, a tributary of the Oka (river), Ok ...

, in a merchant family. He studied at the Tula Classical Gymnasium (1877-1885) graduating with a silver medal before going on to Moscow University in 1885. He graduated in 1890 and joined the staff of the

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Zoological Museum in 1898. He studied ornithology under

Mikhail Menzbier Mikhail Aleksandrovich Menzbier (Russian: Михаил Александрович Мензбир; 23 October 1855 – 10 October 1935) was a Russian and Soviet ornithologist. He was a professor of comparative anatomy at the Moscow University and ...

and his dissertation in 1897 was on the morphology of the skeleton of birds, specifically of the kestrel. He conducted surveys in the Ufa province in 1891 and Kazakhstan in 1898. His studies on the birds of southeastern Russia,

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

and the

Altai Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The ...

were published in several monographs. Sushkin visited European museums from 1899 to 1900 and worked on his doctoral dissertation on the birds of prey. He became a professor at Moscow University and in 1909 became a professor at Kharkov University teaching until 1919. In 1913, he surveyed the Transcaucasian region. From 1919 to 1920 he taught at the Tauride University, Simferopol. He published in English, German, and Russian, and wrote ''Notes on systematics and distribution of certain palaearctic birds'', an influential article on bird relationships.Sushkin, Petr Petrovich, 1868-1928. - Biodiversity Heritage Library
/ref> In 1916, Sushkin was among the founders of the Russian Palaeontological Society. In 1923 he became a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences and in 1924 he was made an honorary member of the British Ornithological Union. Sushkin died of pneumonia at Kislovodsk and is buried at the Smolensky cemetery in Leningrad. He had one daughter from his first wife Anna Ivanovna née Kulakova and had no children from his second wife Nadezhna Nikolaevna née Popova.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sushkin, Petr Petrovich Ornithologists from the Russian Empire Soviet ornithologists 1868 births 1928 deaths People from Tula, Russia