Historia powstania Sekcji Ornitologicznej Polskiego Towarzystwa Zoologicznego i jej działalności do 1970 roku

The story of the creation of the Ornithological Section of the Polish Zoological Society and its activities until 1970. Efforts to establish the Ornithological Section began in 1954, when the Ornithological Group of the Biological Science Club of the University of Warsaw asked the Board of the Polish Zoological Society (PTZool.) to establish an Ornithological Section within this organization The PTZool. congress in Wrocław decided to set up a section. In December 1956, the Faculty of Biological Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences gave permission to organize the 1st Ornithologists’ Congress, supported by a financial grant. The congress was held on November 26 and 27, 1957 and established the PTZool. Ornithological Section, adopted its regulations, set the main goals of its activity, and elected the Management Board. The main tasks were: inventory the Polish avifauna, edit a periodic ornithological magazine, issue a guide enabling identification of bird species in the field, create Ornithology Departments at Universities and introduce lectures in the field of ornithology to teaching plans. The work of the Section was based on the activities of the Groups cooperating with the Main Board. During the first decade, 12 Groups were established in various regions of Poland, whose work consisted in organizing periodic lectures, ornithological trips, and implementation of the Section’s nationwide plans; study of the distribution and abundance of great bustards (Otis tarda), remizes (Remiz pendulinus), winter counting of water birds. Many plans were implemented in the first decade of the Ornithological Section’s activity and further resulted in accelerating the development of the distribution and abundance of Polish avifauna, the lush development of the amateur movement, and the publication Ornithological Notes (Notatki Ornitologiczne), in 2020 year to be called Ornis Polonica