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7 unusual facts about Otto Finsch


Finsch's Wheatear

The common name and scientific name commemorate the German ethnographer, naturalist and colonial explorer Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch (8 August 1839 - 31 January 1917, Braunschweig).

Finschhafen District

The port was discovered (for Europeans) in 1884 by the German researcher Otto Finsch.

Grey-headed Parakeet

The binomial of this bird commemorates the German naturalist and explorer Otto Finsch.

Otto Finsch

Some species of parrot bear his name, including the Lilac-crowned Parrot Amazona finschi and the Grey-headed Parakeet Psittacula finschii.

He also became interested in the creation of German colonies in the Pacific and he became a member of the South Sea Plotters, an influential group led by a banker named Adolph von Hansemann.

In 1885 he was the first European to discover the Sepik river, and he named it after Kaiserin Augusta, the German Empress.

Southern Crowned Pigeon

This species was first discovered new to science by Otto Finsch who found a live bird received from the dealer C. Scheepmaker in Amsterdam Zoo and named it after him.


Pohnpei Starling

The Pohnpei Starling was discovered by the Polish ethnographer John Stanislaw Kubary (1846–1896) and first described by German ornithologist Otto Finsch in 1876.


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