Heinrich von Kittlitz

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Friedrich Heinrich Freiherr von Kittlitz (February 16, 1799 - April 10, 1874) was a German artist, naval officer, explorer and naturalist. He was a descendant of a family of old Prussian nobility ("Freiherr" meaning "independent lord" - ranking with a baron).

Kittlitz sailed round the world between 1826 and 1829 on the Russian Senjawin expedition, under the leadership of Captain Fyodor Petrovich Litke. He provided the museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences with 754 specimens of 314 bird species, including unique specimens of species that subsequently became extinct. He published Twenty-four Views of the Vegetation of the Coasts and Islands of the Pacific (1844).

Kittlitz also travelled to North Africa in 1831 with his friend Eduard Rüppell, but had to return to Germany due to poor health. It was during his time in Egypt whilst waiting for a boat that he collected specimens of the bird which became known as Kittlitz's Plover.