2014
Award Winner: Jens Hering

Jens Hering received
the 2014 Horst Wiehe Foundation Award for his outstanding studies of birds (not only) in North Africa.

Trained as a mechanical engineer and in administrative management, Jens Hering has been one of our country’s most active amateur ornithologists since his early youth, devoting his free time intensively to ornithology as a science—and doing so with great success.

His many trips abroad—including some 30 trips to Africa alone—have been and continue to be specifically focused on researching the avifauna of Libya, Egypt, Djibouti, Sudan, Cape Verde, and the Azores.

Of particular note are his studies of Acrocephalus species, through which he has made a decisive contribution to clarifying the distribution and taxonomic issues surrounding the reed warbler complex (Acrocephalus scirpaceus). For other species, including the pale-faced warbler, the Chinese bittern, the quail, the white stork, the cormorant, the pygmy bittern, the Eurasian collared dove, the short-eared owl, the sparrowhawk, the steppe harrier, the Tufted Duck, and the Common Snipe, he and his colleagues are expanding existing knowledge.

On his expeditions, the study of species distribution plays a major role, as do conservation aspects based on research into habitat requirements and breeding biology.

His list of publications—more than 100 articles, the majority of which he authored as the lead author—speaks for itself.