Renowned Latvian ornithologist Māris Strazds dies

Renowned Latvian ornithologist and environmentalist Māris Strazds died on November 2, LSM reported.

Strazds was one of the world’s most respected researchers of the black stork, a species he studied for more than 30 years. He led an international expedition from Latvia to Africa to track the birds’ wintering routes and focused on the species while still a student.

He earned a doctorate at the University of Latvia with a dissertation on the conservation ecology of the black stork in Latvia. His work also covered capercaillies and forest protection. He authored numerous publications and books and contributed to drafting forest management regulations.

Strazds was one of the founders of the Latvian Ornithological Society in 1985 and served as its first head until 2002. He also helped coordinate Latvia’s first breeding bird atlas survey, conducted from 1980 to 1984, and co-authored the atlas published in 1989. It was the first nationwide mapping of breeding bird distribution in Latvia.

The society said books prepared under Strazds’s guidance on Latvia’s forest, countryside and water birds remain valuable sources of information. Planned books on the country’s seabirds and marsh birds were never completed.