Ornithology has a long tradition in Bohemia. Bohuslav Balbín`s Miscellanea historica regni Bohemiae (written in the second half of the 17th century, Czech translation 2017) can be considered the first thorough ornithological publication. During the 19th century, ornithologists working in the Bohemian lands were mostly members of the Austrian Ornithological Society, whose leading representative was Crown Prince Rudolph. He also convened the First International Ornithological Congress to Vienna in 1884. Among the most important ornithologists working in the Bohemian lands in the 19th and early 20th centuries were Anton Palliardi (1799-1873), Antonín Frič (1832-1913) and Jiří Janda (1865-1938), founder of the Czechoslovak Ornithological Society and director of the zoological garden in Prague.
In Moravia in the 19th century, there worked ornithologists Anton Müller (1799–1864), Adolf Schwab (1807–1891), Josef Talský (1836–1907) and others. After the First World War an ornithology section was established at the Natural Sciences Club in Brno (1921) and the Moravian Ornithological Society was founded in Přerov (1932).
The first president of the society was František Ginter (1904–1986). The members focused on the promotion of bird conservation and founded the Bird Museum, in the premises of the Přerov castle. In 1934 the Society started to publish a magazine with expert and popularization content– Czechoslovak Ornithologist, at that time it was the only Czech-language ornithological periodical. In 1938 the Society house was finished in the park on the outskirts of Přerov, where the Society still resides today and where it runs a museum. The Society was active throughout the twentieth century and is still very much active today. It publishes the specialist magazine MOS News and popularization publications, it organizes lectures and excursions for the public, and actively advocates bird conservation. Since 2005 it has been part of the Czech Ornithological Society. Important members of the association included František Hejl, Alfred Chajda, Zdeněk Šulc, František Hanák and Adolf Goebel.
