Bird spirit collections

With around 17,000 fluid-preserved specimens, the avian spirit collection represents about 38 per cent of the world's species.

Specimens

17,000

Strengths

The collection is one of the five largest of its kind in the world, representing around 38% of the world's species.

Specimens include whole adult birds, chicks, embryos, eggs and dissected body parts, as well as associated material such as stomach contents.

Many specimens in the spirit collection have connections to other parts of our collections, so that material from the same individual bird may also be preserved in the skin or skeleton collection.

For some species, our spirit collection contains the only known spirit specimens anywhere in the world. For example, we have specimens of the Fijian bar-winged rail (Nesoclopeus poecilopterus) and the South Island piopio (Turnagra crassirostris), both extinct.

Major collections

Famous contributions

Several important Antarctic expeditions are represented in the bird spirit collection, including:

the Discovery (1901-1904) and Terra Nova (1910-1912) expeditions led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912)
the Shackleton-Rowett expedition (1921-1922) under Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922) and later Frank Wild (1873-1939)

The collection also includes specimens from Captain James Cook's voyages of discovery, including an I'iwi Vestiaria coccinea, collected in Hawaii between 1778 and 1779.

Investigating a chick under a low-power microscope
Dissection of a rock dove, Columba livia. Dye has been added to highlight the blood vessels.
The spirit collection covers about two kilometres of shelving. In this aisle, a work trolley is ready for the next curation session.
Fiji bar-winged rail specimen preserved in spirit
Vestiaria coccinea or i'iwi, preserved in spirit, collected in the late 1770s.