Jean Louis Cabanis was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 ornithologist.

Cabanis was born in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. He studied at the University of Berlin from 1835 to 1839, and then travelled to North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, returning in 1841 with a large natural history

Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

 collection. He was assistant and later director of the Berlin University Museum, taking over from Martin Lichtenstein

Martin Lichtenstein

Martin Hinrich Carl Lichtenstein was a German physician, explorer, zoologist, and herpetologist.-Biography:...

. He founded the Journal für Ornithologie in 1853, editing it for the next forty-one years, when he was succeeded by his son-in-law Anton Reichenow

Anton Reichenow

Anton Reichenow was a German ornithologist.Reichenow was the son-in-law of Jean Cabanis, and worked at the Humboldt Museum from 1874 to 1921. He was an expert on African birds, making a collecting expedition to West Africa in 1872 and 1873, and writing Die Vögel Afrikas...

.

A number of birds are named after him, including Cabanis' Bunting Emberiza cabanisi, Cabanis' Spinetail Synallaxis cabanisi, Azure-rumped Tanager

Azure-rumped Tanager

The Azure-rumped Tanager, Tangara cabanisi is a Middle American bird of the family Thraupidae. It is a local resident in humid broadleaf forests and adjacent plantations of the Pacific slope of western Guatemala and southern Chiapas, Mexico...

 Tangara cabanisi, and Cabanis' Greenbul Phyllastrephus cabanisi.