Smithsonian
Institution
National Museum of Natural History
Research
Training Program
Division
of Birds
About
the Division of BIRDS
- Research
in the Division of Birds is oriented toward the
evolution, biogeography, and ecology of birds. Particular
interests include functional anatomy, structural
adaptation, phylogeny, distribution and ecology
of neotropical birds, conservation biology of North
American migrants, forensic ornithology, and paleontology
and evolution of birds and of island avifaunas.
Recent field sites include southeastern United States,
California, Guyana, Paraguay, Uruguay and Gabon.
In
cooperation with the U.S. Air Force, specialized
research is currently underway in microscopic feather
identification applying forensic methodologies to
determine species of birds from fragmentary evidence,
especially in relation to bird strikes on aircraft.
Birds Collection Profile
- Specimen Count: 635,000
- Types: 3,962
- New Accessions: 1,500 |
Collections:
The Division of Birds maintains the third largest
bird collection in the world, with over 600,000
specimens including many historical specimens, such
as the only known Charles Darwin specimen from North
America - one of the few remaining Darwin specimens
to have one of Darwin's original labels. The National
Collection, known in the ornithological literature
by the acronym USNM (referring to the old name of
United States National Museum), has representatives
of about 80% of the approximately 9,600 known species
in the world's avifauna.
The
first group of specimens originated from the private
collection of Spencer Fullerton Baird, who collected
in the Carlisle, Pennsylvania region in the early
1840's. Baird's collection also contained material
from leading American naturalists of the early 1800's,
such as J. J. Audubon, and J. K. Townsend. The bird
collection served as the repository for many of
the surveys in the 1800's to explore the western
territories, railroad and telephone routes as well
as international boundary surveys. Theodore Roosevelt
collected birds as a boy and also as a member of
the Smithsonian African Expedition; his specimens
are part of the USNM collection. A major portion
of the bird collection came from the activities
of the U.S. Biological Survey, which actively collected
over much of North America from the 1890's to 1930's.
The oldest specimen in the Division was collected
in Brazil in 1818.
While
the majority of the specimens in the Bird Division
consist of study skins (500,000), skeletal (54,488)
and anatomical (ethanol-stored: 28,661) specimens
are also maintained and these represent the largest
and most diverse of these types of collections in
the world. The skeletal collection includes representatives
of over 5,100 different taxa. The fluid-stored collection
has representatives of almost 4,000 different taxa
as well as specialized subsets including a collection
of fluid-preserved stomach contents, brains, syringes
and a small cleared and stained collection. Additional
collections include egg sets (32,963), nests (4,893),
and mounted skins (2,200). About 1,500 specimens
are added to the collections each year and 35-50
loans of specimens sent to qualified researchers,
students and exhibitions. Tissues frozen in liquid
nitrogen have also been preserved and are stored
at the Laboratories of Analytical Biology. The bird
collection includes 3,962 primary type specimens.
Information and specimen data for each type specimen
is available through an electronic database - the
USNM Birds Type Catalog. The geographic coverage
of the bird collection is worldwide including major
holdings from North America, Central America, northern
South America, eastern Africa, and Southeast Asia.
Regions that are insufficiently represented include
southern South America, western Africa, Europe,
northern Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
Facilities:
Specialized facilities including radiographic and
light photography systems (both digital and film
in each case), darkroom, digital imaging and histological
facilities, and sound analysis equipment are available.
A separate osteopreparatory and marine mammal necropsy
laboratory is located at the Museum Support Center.
These are supplemented by discipline specific libraries
and archives of original illustrations, maps, and
sound recordings.
Field
Work:
Staff in the Department of Vertebrate Zoology has
conducted field research on all continents with
particular emphasis throughout the Americas, portions
of Africa and Southeast Asia and adjoining regions
and across many portions of the World Ocean. In
recent years traditional forms of specimen preparation
have been supplemented by photographic documentation
of life coloration, more encompassing anatomical
preparations, and preservation of materials for
molecular studies.
Education
and Outreach:
Graduate Programs are available in conjunction with
University of Maryland and George Washington University
including formal affiliations through the Robert
Weintraub Program in Systematics and Evolution.
Through this program GWU faculty and graduate students
work on a variety of organisms including bacteria,
protists, angiosperms, cnidarians, mollusks, polychaete
worms, arthropods, echinoderms, dinosaurs, fish,
mammals and lizards.
Staffs
in the Department of Vertebrate Zoology and Affiliated
Agencies are also active as advisors to students
throughout North America and in some countries in
Central and South America and Europe. Students and
researchers are welcome to conduct scientific investigations
using the collections and facilities within the
Department and may borrow certain materials for
loan through their academic advisors and institutions.
Libraries:
The library holdings in Vertebrate Zoology are divided
among the four divisional libraries with references
focusing on systematics, taxonomy, anatomy and physiology,
ecology and distribution, and evolution of their
respective subject groups. The Birds collection
has over 10,000 volumes, including approximately
100 journal subscriptions.
Programs
& Affiliates
Biological
Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey:
Staff scientists of the Biological Resources Division
of the U.S. Geological Survey (Patuxent Wildlife
Research Center) are presently based at the National
Museum of Natural History in the Divisions of Amphibians
and Reptiles, Birds and Mammals under terms of an
interagency Memorandum of Understanding. A major
role of the USGS scientists in each Division is
to serve as collection curators alongside SI staff.
A separately managed staff of curatorial technicians
and museum specialists is deployed among the Divisions
to assist curators in both routine and special curatorial
projects as needed. The scientists conduct a wide
variety of both basic and applied (and largely collections-based)
research projects and technical assistance, including
original taxonomic descriptions and analyses, major
taxonomic treatises, biogeographic and ecological
research, and production of manuals on standard
methods of biodiversity inventory and monitoring.
Contact: Robert P. Reynolds.
For
more information about the NMNH Department of Vertebrate
Zoology, including a complete staff listing and
research initiatives, visit the Birds
website.
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