Australian Museum Ornithology Collection

Ornithology is the branch of zoology devoted to studying birds. Around 10,000 species of bird inhabit the world, ranging from tiny hummingbirds up to huge ostriches. The Australian Museum's Ornithology Collection contains a wide cross-section of these fascinating animals.

Living birds are warm-blooded vertebrate animals that have:

feathers
forelimbs modified as wings
scales on their legs and feet
a bill without teeth
lay hard-shelled eggs

About the Ornithology Collection

The Australian Museum has one of the largest ornithological collections in the Southern Hemisphere. It contains a large variety of bird skins, mounts, skeletons, eggs, nests, spirit specimens and tissue samples, representing approximately 95% of the world's bird families. You can get a feel for the kinds of specimens in the collection by checking out the photo gallery titled "Quick tour of the bird collection", located on the right side of this page.

While the main emphasis is on species from New South Wales, almost all species that breed in Australia are well represented. The collection also contains around 3,500 non-Australian species, many of which hail from New Guinea, New Zealand, the south-west Pacific. The collection has great historical and scientific significance. It contains many rare, endangered and extinct species plus a significant number of type specimens, primarily from Australia and the Pacific Islands. As many specimens date from the mid 1860s, some even earlier, the collection allows scientists, students and other interested parties an insight into avian biology, morphology, anatomy and geographical distributions over time.

Highlights of the collection include:

Scientifically important specimens

Around 340 type specimens across 180 taxa, primarily from Australia and the Pacific Islands. This includes the skin of Princess Parrot (Polytelis alexandrae) that John Gould used when originally describing this species.

Historically important specimens

Many specimens have a special place in history, such as more than 700 Antarctic birds and eggs collected by Douglas Mawson and his team on their historic Antarctic expedition (1912-13). These range from large King Penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) to dainty Wilson's Storm-petrels (Oceanites oceanicus).

Extinct or rare species

Among the extinct species is the beautiful Paradise Parrot (Psephotus pulcherrimus), which holds the dubious distinction of being the only Australian mainland bird to have become extinct since the arrival of Europeans. Of the 12 Paradise Parrot specimens in the collection, one of the most beautiful is a mounted specimen in a glass dome, presented to the Museum by the estate of Sir Edward Hallstrom. Other species, such as the Night Parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis), represented in the collection by five specimens, have not yet slipped into extinction but remain very rare and endangered.

Unique specimens

Some birds are known only from a single representative. Captain Blood's Bird of Paradise is the only known specimen of a hybrid between Raggiana's Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea raggiana) and the Blue Bird of Paradise (P. rudolphi). It is named after the collector, Captain Neptune B. Blood (Mt Hagen area, PNG; 1944). This is the unique specimen, as well as the type, of Paradisaea bloodi. Another example is the Upland Sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda). While widespread in the New World, this is the only record for Australia (collected at the Randwick Swamps in 1848). It was sent on loan by the Museum to John Gould, in order that he could illustrate it for his book series, 'The Birds of Australia'.

Peculiar specimens

Some specimens offer a fascinating insight into the lives of birds. In 1903, a specimen of the very uncommon Grey Falcon (Falco hypoleucos) was donated to the Museum. This specimen is of particular interest as it still has the head of its last meal, a Mallee Ringneck Parrot (Barnardius zonarius barnardi), clamped firmly to its leg by the beak. The Falcon had been shot by a farmer in Condobolin, who was no doubt surprised to see that the parrot had not given in without a fight.

Dr Walter Boles , Collection Manager, Ornithology
Last Updated: 18 March 2010

Share:

What is this?

2 comments

STAFF

Jaynia Sladek
10.08 AM, 28 August 2009

Hi Barbara. Thanks for your enquiry. We do not have many specimens from the Galapagos Islands in the collection, but we do have several that were collected by Rollo H. Beck. If you contact either Walter Boles or myself via email (walter.boles@austmus.gov.au or jaynia.sladek@austmus.gov.au), we can help you with more details. Best regards, Jaynia Sladek

Permalink

bwest
8.07 AM, 18 July 2009

I have not been able to find your database online, so write to ask your help. I am attempting to locate all bird materials (skins, eggs, skeletons, etc.) in the world (a) from the Galapagos Islands, and/or (b) collected by Rollo H. Beck. If you have any such specimens I would very much appreciate a spreadsheet with the relevant data. Thank you very much. Barbara West Research Associate California Academy of Sciences

Permalink

Report misuse

Would you like to add a comment?

Forgotten your password?

Would you like to add a tag?

Forgotten your password?

General information

Copyright

Address

6 College Street Sydney, NSW 2010 Australia

Phone

(612) 9320 6000

Contact

Australian Museum contact forms

Opening hours

9.30am to 5pm daily (except Christmas day)

Browse index:

Site navigation