Birds

Comments

Glasgow Museums has a collection of approximately 9,000 bird specimens and around 30,000 eggs. These date from the late 1700s to 2014.

This collection includes species from all over the world, which range in size from tiny hummingbirds to an ostrich. Most bird specimens in the collection are preserved as cabinet skins or mounted specimens. There are also skulls, skeletons, birds’ nests and a small collection of owl pellets and gizzard stones. The collection holds examples of some extinct species, such as the great auk, passenger pigeon and huia, and a few unusual specimens including a one-winged willow warbler and some nests made from atypical materials. Notable contributors to the collection include Hugh Corsar Arbuthnott, Henry Brown, Major Archibald Hamilton Cochrane, Captain Donald Cross, Robert Kirke, James Lumsden, Neill Malcolm (the Poltalloch Collection), John Mitchell Douglas Mackenzie, William Emilius Praeger, and Alexander Ballantyne Stewart.

Supporting material includes associated documentation, such as notebooks and egg catalogues, and early photographs of birds by Charles Kirk, which date from the beginning of the 1900s.

Broader term

Zoology

Narrower term

Auks

Birds of Prey

Cuckoos and relatives

Divers

Geese, Swans and Ducks

Grebes

Grouse, Quails and Pheasants

Hummingbirds

Kingfishers

Mousebirds

Nightjars

Ostriches, Rheas, Emus and Cassowaries

Owls

Parrots

Passerines

Pelicans, Gannets and Cormorants

Penguins

Petrels and Shearwaters

Pigeons

Rails and Bustards

Sandgrouse

Skuas, Gulls and Terns

Storks, Herons, Bitterns and relatives

Swifts

Trogons

Waders

Woodpeckers and relatives

Staff Contact

Robyn Haggard

Key Objects

Key Objects