Head of: Nikola Ljubešić, F.C.A.
Director: Jelena Kralj, Ph.D.
Address: Gundulićeva 24, 10000 Zagreb
Phone: +385 01 4825 404
Phone: +385 01 482 5401
E-mail: zzo@hazu.hr
The Institute of Ornithology (founded in 1901 as the Croatian Ornithological Centre) is a scientific institution that systematically conducts ecological, faunistic and taxonomic ornithological research. Since 1996, the Ornithological Station on the island of Cres has been part of the Institute.
The Institute has the most complete ornithological library in Croatia and this part of Europe (over 3000 books and 400 journals). It now receives 260 foreign and some 20 domestic journals in exchange for the Larus Institute yearbook (published since 1947), in which, in addition to scientific papers, professional articles, notices, etc. are published.
The scientific collection of bird skins and eggs of the Institute is very valuable because of its numerous specimens (over 8000, some of which date back to the 19th century) and were collected mostly in Croatia and surrounding countries.
Since 1910, the Institute has been conducting and coordinating the scientific ringing of birds in Croatia. Ringing is carried out for the purpose of recognizing and monitoring the migratory systems of birds and a whole range of other facts from the life of birds (survival, nesting success, mortality, population dynamics, etc.). There are currently about 60 associate ringers that ring about 30,000 birds a year. Since 1910, over 1,500,000 birds have been ringed and about 40,000 have been rediscovered.
Important activities of the Institute are protection of birds (through protected areas and individual species), nature protection in general, scientific ornithological education, popularization of birds, care of Croatian ornithological terminology.
From 2017 to 2020, employees of the Institute participated in the cross-border Interreg Slovenia-Croatia project Conservation of the Common Tern in Sava and Drava Basin, funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the Interreg V-A Slovenia-Croatia Cooperation Programme 2014-2020.