The Pied Flycatcher is one of Europe's best studied species. The first detailed work on it was begun in the 1930's by German ornithologists, but it was Lars von Hartman's Finnish study that both established long term research on the species and founded many of the central themes of modern ornithology. Soon after, in the late 1940's, Bruce Campbell set up an intensive project in South West England, which also still runs to this day. Many other eminent ornithologists followed and in 1979 Arne Lundberg and Rauno Alatalo started their own work in Sweden, Finland and latterly the north of England.