Birds
More than 45,000 specimens
Ornithology is the study of birds, from their evolution, behavior and physiology to their conservation needs.
The Bell Museum’s Bird Collection currently houses more than 46,000 catalogued specimens. Of these, the majority are standard, dried study skin preparations, although there are approximately 3,600 skeletons, 2,500 sets of eggs and 450 nests. Many of the recent specimens (more than 4,000) have accompanying frozen tissue samples. Geographically, most specimens come from the Upper Midwest with the majority of these from Minnesota. International collections include about 12,000 specimens from Mexico and historically important collections from the Philippines resulting from the Menage expedition.
Current projects include our statewide Salvage Wildlife program as well as student and faculty research focusing on birds in Minnesota, North America, Madagascar, India, and the Philippines to name just a few. Check out our stories in the links below.
Click here to learn more about Salvage Wildlife
For general bird inquiries, loan and information requests, or to make donations of salvage birds, please email bellbirds@umn.edu.
Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas
The Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas is a searchable, public database of animal, plant, and fungal specimens collected from all 87 Minnesota counties. With more than two million records and 500,000 images, this publicly available resource continues to grow.
Minnesota is home to the convergence of the three largest ecosystems in North America: broadleaf forest, prairie, and boreal forest. More than 9,000 different species reside here and records dating from the 19th century up to the present are hosted in the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas.
Funding for the Atlas is provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
How to request a loan
Zoological Collections loan requests will be evaluated based on merit, potential for specimen damage, and availability and condition of specimens.
Allow at least 4 weeks for approval and processing.
- Search the Bell Museum Bird Collections for research and education specimens on Arctos. Some helpful resources for understanding Arctos search and results are at: https://arctosdb.org/about/quick-tour/
- Prepare the following:
- Your name, email, institution, mailing address, phone, and ORCiD (if requesting a research loan). If you are a student, postdoc, or support staff, also include this information for your PI.
- Project title
- Project abstract
- General methods including the type of data you expect to gather and where the data will be deposited (GenBank, MorphoSource, IsoBank, etc.). Destructive or consumptive requests must include explicit details regarding the amount and nature of material requested, expected damage to the specimens, and demonstration of successful methods for sampling and analysis of similar materials. Indicate who will be tasked with destructive sampling.
- List of specimens and parts you would like to borrow or sample, including whether there is taxonomic or geographic flexibility in the materials that would meet your project needs. Indicate how the Bell Museum specimens fit into your overall sampling scheme.
- A statement agreeing to credit the Bell Museum and specimens as outlined in the Loan Conditions below.
- Email your request to Bird Curator Sushma Reddy (sreddy@umn.edu and bellbirds@umn.edu). If your request involves genetic work, please include Genetic Resources Curator Keith Barker (barke042@umn.edu). Please cc Collections Manager Angela Hornsby (horns076@umn.edu).
Loan recipients agree to the following conditions:
- At minimum, reference specimens by the full triplet catalog number (e.g., MMNH:Bird:1234) in all publicly available materials including articles, appendices, and databases. Where possible, complete GUID urls should be used (e.g., https://arctos.database.museum/guid/MMNH:Bird:1234).
- Credit the collections as: Bell Museum (University of Minnesota)
- Loans are made to institutions, not individuals. Do not subsample, alter, or transfer without written approval from the curator. Store specimens in a secure location with proper environmental controls. Notify the curator of specimen damage, misidentifications, and other concerns.
- Provide to the curator the DOI for each published article or product resulting from use of these specimens, and accession numbers or links to specimen data deposited in databases (GenBank, MorphoSource, IsoBank, etc.).
- Return specimens in the original condition and with the same or comparable packaging. Tissue and other consumptive loans do not need to be returned.