August von Pelzeln (10 May 1825, Prague – 2 September 1891 in Oberdöbling) was an Austrian ornithologist. He was a grandson to novelist Karoline Pichler (1769-1843).[1]
He studied at the University of Vienna, later working as an assistant under helminthologist Karl Moriz Diesing (1800-1867) in the Hof-Naturalien-Cabinet (from 1851). In 1857 he acquired curatorial duties formerly held by Johann Jakob Heckel (1790-1857),[1] and subsequently became in charge of the bird (1857) and mammal (1869) collections.[2] He worked on the birds collected by Johann Natterer in Brazil (343 species).[3]
He was forced to retire from the museum due to ill health, and died at Oberdöbling near Vienna.
Some birds described by Pelzeln are the orange-breasted thornbird, the spot-winged antbird, the red-legged tinamou, the white-throated tinamou, the short-billed leaftosser, the yellow-margined flatbill and the New Zealand rockwren.
His name is associated with Pelzeln's tody-tyrant (Hemitriccus inornatus).[4] Gustav Hartlaub (1814-1900) named the Madagascar grebe (Tachybaptus pelzelnii) in his honor;[5] Otto Finsch (1839-1917) named the Pohnpei starling (Aplonis pelzelni) after Pelzeln.[6]
