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# Mecklenburg stork with an African spear and the study of bird migration in the 19th century
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/do-xix-veka-nauke-ne-bylo-naverniaka-izvestno-chto-proiskhodit-s-mnogimi-ptitsami-zimoi-kuda-oni-ischezaiut/
- Published: 2023-11-21T07:02:50.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:43:34.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Science, Nature

Until the nineteenth century, science did not know for certain what happens to many birds in winter: where do they vanish to? As late as the end of the eighteenth century it was suggested that birds fall into hibernation and sleep beneath the snow or on the beds of lakes and rivers, though even that is nothing beside the notion that birds fly off to the moon.

Evidence of the migratory nature of birds' lives came in 1822, with the discovery in Mecklenburg of a stork whose neck had been pierced by a spear made of central African timber. This became a vivid confirmation of bird migration. Later, birds bearing similar marks began to be noticed more often.

Yet the scientific study of bird migration began only towards the end of the nineteenth century, when someone hit upon the idea of fastening to their legs aluminium rings bearing geographical information.

This ignorance is rather strange to contemplate, considering that Aristotle had already written of storks flying from Scythia to the course of the Nile.

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_10432@21-11-2023_10-02-50.jpg)