Hans Löhrl (25 May 1911 – 26 June 2001) was a German ornithologist and ethologist who conducted studies on bird behaviour, life-history, the imprinting of natal habitat, and wrote several popular books on bird life. Löhrl was born in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

and studied biology and geology at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...

and received a PhD from the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

for studies on rodents. He then worked at the Rossitten and Radolfzell bird observatories, heading the latter from 1963 until his retirement in 1976. Löhrl was skilled at raising young birds and his home often had free flying birds of a number of species that he studied at close quarters. These included studies on cuckoos, nuthatches, and tree creepers which are considered hard to raise in captivity. In the 1950s he was influenced by Gustav Kramer to examine how collared flycatchers were able to learn what their home-grounds where and noted that this imprinting required the young birds to fly and explore the habitats in which they grew up. He also examined problems of clutch size in terms of the last or weakest nestling. He coined the term ''nachstürzen'' (or diving after) as a reflex action among insectivorous birds for whom chasing fallen or escaping prey was energetically less demanding than searching afresh for prey.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Löhrl, Hans 1911 births 2001 deaths German ornithologists