Oskar von Riesenthal

Julius Adolf Oskar von Riesenthal (18 September 1830 – 22 January 1898) was a German forester, ornithologist, hunter and writer.

He was born in Breslau, Silesia (then in Prussia: now Wrocław, Poland), to a family of Austrian descent. His father died when he was a year old, and he moved with his mother to Oels (now Oleśnica), where he spent his childhood and early youth until matriculating from Gymnasium.^[1] He studied at the Eberswalde Forestry Academy in Neustadt-Eberswalde, becoming a Revierförster (district forest ranger) in the Tuchola Forest, where he began studying ornithology. In 1871 he became Oberförster (chief forester) in Altenkirchen, where he wrote his first book, Die Raubvögel Deutschlands und des angrenzenden Mitteleuropas (Birds of Prey of Germany and adjoining Central Europe). He later became Royal Forester for the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Domains in Charlottenburg, where he stayed until his death in 1898.