Bird skin collection
Curator: Igor Fadeev.
The collection
contains 7 118 specimens. It is still being regularly replenished today, but
the majority of specimens date from the late 19th to the early 20th
centuries. A significant number of valuable specimens were collected by
well-known foreign ornithologists at the end of the 19th – the beginning
of 20th century in various regions of Africa, Southeast Asia,
including the islands of the Malay archipelago, Central and South America. The specimens
of this collection were originally intended as materials for future taxidermied
animals and for exchange. Nowadays, bird skins have independent significance as
valuable scientific and memorial objects.
The collection represents
groups of exotic birds, such as Tanagers, Cacique, Hummingbirds, Birds-of-paradise,
which are quite rare in the collections of Russian natural science museums.
In the 80s, the collection was added with specimens collected by the famous zoologist,
Professor Alexander Kuzyakin on the territory of the former USSR, as well as in
China while he was teaching at Chinese universities in 1957-1958.
Today, the collection
is actively replenished by Darwin museum employees, who annually collect
valuable scientific material on the territory of Russia. Moreover, there is an
active scientific exchange with American colleagues from the Burke Museum of
Natural History and Culture (University of Washington, Seattle) and The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota),
as well as the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). As a result of such
collaboration, 335 specimens of birds of the North American fauna were added to
the collection. In the last decade, along with collecting material for the Museum’s
collection, the museum employees have been taking tissue samples for genetic
analysis, which significantly increases the scientific value of the specimens.
A collection box with skins
of birds-of-paradise (family Paradisaeidae)
A part of the black
grouse (Lirurus tetrix L.) skins collection.
A collection box with skins
of various species of tanagers (family Thraupidae).
A collection box with skins of yellowhammers (Emberiza citrinella L.).
