Skins
750,000
A sooty albatross sits on its nest © Alex Bond
750,000
20,000
5,000
300,000
20,000
4,000
With over one million specimens and representing 95% of bird species, the bird collections are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world.
Our bird collections span the entire history of the Natural History Museum, from rare survivors of Hans Sloane’s collections that formed the foundation of the British Museum in 1753, to specimens currently in preparation in our beetle colonies.
Since the early 1970s, the collections have been located at the Natural History Museum at Tring, in Hertfordshire, where they are housed in part of Walter Rothschild’s original museum complex and in a purpose-built collections facility.
A diverse range of specimen preparations make up the collections, including study skins, mounts, skeletons, spirit specimens, eggs and nests.
With some 9,000 types, the type collection is the largest single collection of bird types globally.
Additionally, the combined collections are especially strong in historic, extinct and endangered taxa, many of which are globally rare or even unique in collections.Individually, each specialist collection area also has key strengths that make them internationally outstanding.
The Museum also holds one the finest ornithological libraries in the world with over 80,000 volumes, including unpublished manuscripts, field notebooks and paintings, many of which are linked directly with the bird collections.
A team of specialist curators are responsible for looking after the collections. From maintaining existing specimens or preparing and accessioning new ones, to documenting and digitizing, their stewardship ensures that even the oldest specimens are potentially available for research, outreach and exhibitions.
Facilitating research is one of our core activities. Behind the scenes, the combined resources of the bird collections are consulted by researchers throughout the world across a wide range of subjects including; taxonomy, comparative anatomy, ecology evolution, genomics, osteology, zoogeography, ecology, conservation, art, archaeology and palaeontology.
In a typical year, some 250 visitors use the collections in person, while staff help many more researchers with loans and other enquiries. In addition, a broad programme of projects is carried out in-house by the birds’ team of curators, researchers and scientific associates.
Our group works on birds not only across the whole planet, but also across thousands of years, with particular themes being evolution, conservation and human/bird interactions.
Worldwide, all continents and oceans, many islands.
Key strengths: Europe, Africa, South-East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Antarctic region
Excepting archaeological and palaeontological specimens, most specimens fall within the range 1850-1950.Our oldest specimens are from the early-mid 1700s and we continue to add hundreds of specimens each year.
The collection is being digitised
Please get in touch if you would like to use any specimens for research.
Nigel Collar
Clem Fisher
Julian Hume
Steve Portugal
Robert Prŷs-Jones
Pamela Rasmussen
Gavin Thomas
Guy Kirwan
The Museum holds one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of blown birds’ eggs in the world, as well as over 4,000 nests.
The avian skin collection at the Museum is the second largest collection of its kind in the world, with almost 750,000 specimens representing about 95% of the world’s extant bird species.
The collection is the largest of its kind in the UK with around 16,600 specimens, including complete and partial skeletons and skulls.
Our avian spirit collection is one of the five largest collections of its kind in the world, containing about 17,000 fluid-preserved specimens.
We have set out on an ambitious programme to develop a new science and digitisation centre. As we prepare for the move, access to some collections will be affected.
Scientists and collections management specialists can visit the collections and borrow specimens for research.
Our duty is to provide a safe and secure environment for all of our collections.