Longest-running ornithological journal

The longest-running ornithological journal is the Journal of Ornithology (formerly Journal für Ornithologie), the official periodical of the German Ornithologists’ Society, which began in 1853. It was established by German ornithologist Jean Louis Cabanis.

The Ibis, the British Ornithological Union’s journal, began in 1859, while the earliest in North America was the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club (1876), which became The Auk when its ownership was passed on to the newly founded American Ornithologists’ Union in 1883.

The first ornithological popular magazine (as opposed to a technical or academic publication) was the Audubon Magazine, launched by George Bird Grinnell (USA) of New York City and Connecticut in 1887. It was discontinued after only two years owing to lack of resources. In its wake, Frank M Chapman launched Bird Lore in 1899 as an organ of a loose federation of local Audubon Societies; the title of this magazine reverted to Audubon Magazine in 1941 following the formal establishment of the National Audubon Society.