Elizabeth Kozlova

Elizabeth Vladimirovna Kozlova née Pushkariova (19 August 1892 – 10 February 1975) was a Russian ornithologist who worked on the avifauna of the Tibetan plateau.

Life and career

Elizabeth was the daughter of Saint Petersburg physician Vladimir Pushkariov born in Krasnoye Selo. In 1910, at the age of 18, she was in Normandy where she impressed the famous Colonel Pyotr Kozlov, a well-known explorer 29 years her senior. A fan of the explorer Nikolai Przhevalsky, he was smitten by the explorer in her and he divorced his wife Nadezhda Stepanovna Kamynina (married 1891) and married Elizabeth in 1912. The couple lived in Smolny Prospect 6 and began to travel widely together. From 1923–1926 she took part as the professional ornithologist in an expedition, organised by the Russian Geographical Society and led by her husband, to Mongolia. She returned to Mongolia in 1929 and 1930 to collect and to conduct further bird studies, her research resulting in the publication in 1930 of Birds of South-western Transbaikalia, Northern Mongolia and the Central Gobi, for which she was awarded the Geographical Society's Silver Medal. The Great Grey Owl (Strix nebulosa elisabethae) and the Ortolan bunting (Emberiza hortulana elisabethae) are named after her.