The Bird Collection

The museum’s bird collection includes more than 113,000 specimens representing about 4,000 species from around the world, with especially strong collections of Philippine and Central and South American birds.

There are several different types of specimens: study skins, skeletons, spread wings and eggs. We also maintain a small tissue collection available for studying DNA containing samples from eastern North American taxa. About 140 taxa are in the type collection. Extinct species are also represented.

The bird skin, skeleton, and tissue collections are fully databased and searchable online through iDigBioVertNet and GBIF.org

Matthew Halley, Ph.D.
Assistant Curator of Birds