He was arguably the most famous prisoner ever housed at Alcatraz, the federal prison perched high on an island off the coast of San Francisco.

Meet Robert Stroud, aka the Birdman of Alcatraz.

But some bird lovers call him the “Birdman of Leavenworth.”

Stroud became famous for his work raising and studying canaries while in prison. But contrary to his nickname — also the name of the movie he inspired — that work was actually done at the federal penitentiary in Kansas.

He wasn’t allowed to have birds at Alcatraz.

All eyes are on Alcatraz now that President Donald Trump wants to reopen “The Rock,” which closed in March 1963 and has been a popular National Park Service tourist site since 1973.

Sparking public debate, Trump directed the Bureau of Prisons, Department of Justice, FBI and Homeland Security “to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders,” he wrote on social media this week.

And just like that, people are talking about the Birdman again.

Burt Lancaster played the famous prisoner in the classic 1962 movie, “Birdman of Alcatraz.”

By many accounts Stroud, a Seattle native, came from a troubled home which he left when he was 13, escaping an alcoholic, abusive father. He moved to the Alaska Territory, where it is said he was working as a pimp by the age of 18.

In 1909, Stroud was convicted of manslaughter after brutally killing a bartender in Juneau who failed to pay one of Stroud’s prostitutes.

While serving time at McNeil Island, a federal prison on an island in Puget Sound, in Washington state, Stroud stabbed another inmate. That earned him a transfer to Leavenworth, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

Stroud was one of several notorious men who have called the Leavenworth penitentiary home: Gangsters “Machine Gun” Kelly and Frank “the Enforcer” Nitti. Oscar Collazo, who tried to assassinate President Harry Truman in 1950.

Disgraced NFL player Michael Vick served time there for his participation in dog fighting.

In 1916 Stroud stabbed a Leavenworth guard to death in front of 1,100 inmates in the prison mess hall, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Four years later President Woodrow Wilson commuted the sentence to life in prison after Stroud’s mother begged for mercy.

He was banished to solitary confinement at Leavenworth where, as the story is told, he found a nest of baby sparrows blown into the exercise yard by a storm. He saved them, raised them and began studying birds in a breeding lab he was allowed to set up in the cells next to his.

“During his 30 years at Leavenworth, he developed his interest in birds and eventually wrote two books about canaries and their diseases,” says his Bureau of Prisons biography.

“Initially, prison officials allowed Stroud’s bird studies because it was seen as a constructive use of his time. However, contraband items were often found hidden in the bird cages, and prison officials discovered that equipment Stroud had requested for his ‘scientific’ studies had actually been used to construct a still for ‘home-brew.’

“Stroud was transferred to Alcatraz in 1942, where he spent the next 17 years (six years in segregation in ‘D Block’ and 11 years in the prison hospital).”

In 1959 he was transferred to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, where he died on Nov. 21, 1963.

Prison officials make clear that “Stroud never had any birds at Alcatraz, nor was he the grandfatherly person portrayed by Burt Lancaster in the well-known movie.”

Ironically, “The Rock” is known as a great place for watching birds. The word “Alcatraz” comes from the Spanish word “alcatraces,” which roughly translates to seabirds, pelicans or strange birds.

“Over the years, thousands of seabirds have nested on The Rock. You might think being sent to live in the middle of a bird colony would be a dream come true for someone called ‘Birdman,’” write the bird lovers at The Bird Watcher’s General Store on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

“But by the time he arrived, all the nesting colonies were gone. Also, Robert Stroud ... wasn’t really a bird watcher. He raised birds and kept them in cages. What? Birds in cages?

“Alcatraz was the most sinister of all America’s prisons and the hardcore officials that ran The Rock were not about to let any inmate move in with a collection of pet canaries.

“The famous Birdman of Alcatraz never had a single bird the entire seventeen years he was at Alcatraz. Robert Stroud was actually the ‘Birdman of Leavenworth,’ while in Alcatraz he was just prisoner No. 594.”

Birders note that after the prison closed, nesting birds returned to The Rock, now a birding hot spot.

Stroud was never allowed to see Lancaster’s portrayal of him in the movie, according to the website Alcatraz History. Lancaster was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

He lost to Gregory Peck who won for his role in — irony of ironies — “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

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