Today I'm putting together a talk on bird migration aimed at middle school students and I'm going to tell the story of the Pfeilstorch, because it's an important moment in early ornithological history, and also kind of bonkers. (1/5)

It goes something like this. In 1822, a guy in northern Germany shot a White Stork only to realize that he was not the first to do so.

The bird had a big arrow in its neck. (2/5)

He took it to the local museum where they recognized the arrow as being of sub-Saharan African origin.

Turns out someone had tried to hunt this stork before, but the bird persevered and continued its migration all the way to Europe with a big freaking arrow in its neck. (3/5)

People didn't really understand bird migration then. So this was gruesome evidence that storks were spending the winter in Africa instead of hibernating or transforming into other birds or any of a number of bizarre theories about why birds disappeared in the winter. (4/5)

Anyway, the bird was mounted as it was for the University of Rostocker collection in Germany where it's known as the Pfeilstorch (Arrow Stork). (5/5)