This page contains a general description of the collections, plus information about our collecting expeditions and our loan policy for scientific specimens.

General description

The Division of Ornithology is a research center and storehouse of knowledge about birds. We maintain world- class scientific collections of birds of the world. Each specimen, like a unique book in a library, can teach us a lot about birds. Our special holdings include feathers from the extinct moas of New Zealand; specimens of extinct species such as Eskimo Curlew, Passenger Pigeon, Carolina Parakeet, and Ivory-billed Woodpecker; as well as Resplendent Quetzals, Harpy Eagles, and many other unusual birds. We have an excellent ornithological library that was made much more complete with recent generous bequests from Marion and Robert Mengel, and Wilbur Quay.

The collections in the Division of Ornithology total more than 100,000 catalogued specimens representing about 4,000 species (44 % of world total) and 161 families (89 % of world total). The collections are especially strong for the United States and Mexico, with additional holdings from Central and South America, Southeast Asia, Australia, and Africa. Recently, the collections have entered a phase of rapid growth, both in terms of numbers and of geographic and taxonomic coverage. Since 1993, twice-yearly expeditions to the tropics—Australia, China, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guyana, Mexico, Paraguay, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru—have added numerous taxa previously unrepresented in the collection. Important collections previously minor at KU, such as frozen tissues and fluid-preserved (spirit) specimens, have grown quickly, establishing KU as an important national respository.

The Division's study skin collections total about 60,000 specimens. These collections are strongest for the Great Plains of the United States and for Mexico, with additional holdings from across Central and South America, China, Borneo, Kenya, and Papua New Guinea. Collections of special importance include series of more than 14,000 House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), which formed the basis for landmark scientific research by Richard Johnston and his students; extensive series of several North American species (Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus, meadowlarks Sturnella spp., Horned Lark Eremophila alpestris); series documenting many of the Great Plains hybrid zones; and the feathers of an extinct moa (Dinornithidae). Recent additions include extensive series from Guyana, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Paraguay, including many species otherwise poorly represented in scientific collections.

The avian osteological collections are extensive, totaling over 32,500 specimens, and ranked third largest in the world (Wood and Schnell 1986). This component of the collection has important strengths from the Great Plains of the United States, Mexico, and northern South America. Important holdings include critical and unique Ecuadorian series, extensive recent Australian material, and a large series of steamer-ducks (Tachyeres sp.). Recent collecting activities have built South American skeletal holdings into an important collection, with material from poorly represented sectors such as the Atlantic Forest, the Yucatan Peninsula, Guyana, and montane Central America.

Although fluid-preserved specimens were not an early focus of Division activities, the collections at KU were ranked seventh in North America at the time of the last summary of anatomical holdings (Wood et al. 1982). More recently, as part of Prum's research program, these collections have grown significantly, with important holdings of suboscine passeriform birds, among other groups. Now housed with ample space and ideal storage conditions in an NSF- and State of Kansas-funded addition to the Museum, this collection is seeing increased research applications.

The frozen tissue collection is the fastest-growing in the Division, having more than quintupled over the past five years. As part of the Division's active Neotropical collecting program, two collecting expeditions have been conducted yearly since 1993. This material, coming from little-collected areas such as the Guianan Shield, the Yucatan Peninsula, the Chaco, the Cerrado, and the Atlantic Forest of southeastern South America, includes many unique and uncommon samples now increasingly in demand from molecular systematic laboratories. The collection sees intense use from both within KU and in the systematic community at large, and is quickly becoming one of the most important Neotropical avian tissue resources worldwide.

The entire ornithological collections are computerized and accessible via Internet (http://speciesanalyst.net/). The KU bird collections catalog was the first avian data base to be connnected to a distributed data base on the World Wide Web as part of the NSF-funded North American Biodiversity Information Network, a trinational project under co-direction of Town Peterson.

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Collecting expeditions

Since 1993, the Division has conducted avian inventories in Australia, Argentina, China, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guyana, Mexico, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru and the United States.

Garrulax milnei - Guangxi province, China, 2004

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Loan policy

Please read our current loan policy and contact the collections manager or curators for any materials needed from the Ornithology collection or prior to planning a collection visit.

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