A species in the collection
The NHMO bird collection contains about 100 000 objects preserved for scientific use. Objects include whole skins, skeletons and bones, eggs, sperm cells, or samples of tissue, blood and DNA for molecular analyses. A brief summary of object types and their taxonomical and geographical distribution is presented in Overview.

Around 4000 species are represented, covering about one third of the global avifauna. The taxonomy follows IOC World Bird List version 11.2.

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About the collection
Most of the skin and egg collections were acquired from several expeditions, often to exotic parts of the world, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In recent years, the main growth of the collection has come from the many blood and sperm samples collected as part of research projects in the Sex and Evolution Research Group (SERG).

Contact info
Bird Collection:
DNA Bank:
For requests for loans of genetic samples, please see the guidelines of the DNA bank.

How to search the collection

Luscinia svecica svecica
Collection of blood sample from bluethroat (Luscinia svecica svecica). Photo: Jan T. Lifjeld.