Ornithology Collection ZMH

Ornithological collection

The ornithological collection manages approx. 71,000 specimens of approx. 3,500 bird species. The largest part of the collection is the bellows collection with approx. 30,000 specimens, plus approx. 4,000 skeletons, 2,000 alcohol preparations, 15,000 eggs and 20,000 feather specimens. The collection also includes extensive historical material, including specimens from the ornithological collection of the Godeffroy Museum from the 19th century, which originate from the South Pacific. Other geographical focuses are: East Africa, Angola, Sao Tomé, India, Philippines, New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago, Australia, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala, China, Far East Russia, as well as feathers from birds of the Western Palaearctic.

Collection growth from the 1950s onwards

The collection suffered substantial losses during the war. The old catalogues were lost. After the war, the collection was increased by around 9,000 items by 1967. This included material from the Hamburg Angola and India expeditions (1952-1954 and 1955-1958 respectively), as well as the extensive collections of Gomez (Ecuador 1957; 1,700 items), Oelckers (Worldwide 1958; 2,400 items) and Zeidler (Worldwide 1962; 1,600 items). The collection also received a number of small but significant donations (H.-W. and M. Koepcke, W. Trense, K. Weiß, P. Wyrwich, K. Leonhardt) as well as a large number of bellows and show specimens from the Altona Museum until the early 1980s. In the 1990s, the collection grew once again by around 20,000 feather specimens from the collections of G.-M. Heinze and G. Hartmann.

The following collectors and collections can also be mentioned:
F. Dörries, G.A. Fischer, G. Heidemann, D. von Holst, H. Kelm, G.A. von Maydell, Amalie Dietrich, A. Garrett, E. Gräffe, Capt. Heinsohn, F. Hübner, T. Kleinschmidt, J.S. Kubary, A. Tetens, H. Möschler, D.S. Rabor, Prof. Rockstroh, H. Schubotz, A. Schultze, W. Schulz, G. Siemssen.

Extensive diversity of the bird fauna

Although not an extraordinarily large collection overall, the Hamburg ornithological collection of 3,500 species represents a relatively large diversity share of the global bird fauna (approx. 10,000 species). Also noteworthy is the large European collection of magpies (Pica pica) with approx. 2,000 specimens (Kelm coll.), which documents the intraspecific variability of this species in particular detail. There are also larger populations of Columbidae (pigeons) and Trochilidae (hummingbirds). Apart from this, no systematic group is conspicuously dominant.

Historical data and public and scientific use

The collection houses individuals of extinct species with significant historical context. The extinction of the Passenger Pigeon and Caroline Parakeets in North America, the Magnificent Mocho in Hawaii and the Huias in New Zealand is directly linked to the rapidly growing population and widespread unbalanced utilisation of natural resources in the ecosystems of the post-colonial period, which had not yet been heavily impacted by humans.

The last printed type catalogue is from 1898, when the collection already comprised type specimens of 100 species. A project is currently underway with the aim of cataloguing all the type material in the collection to date and making it available online as a publication for scientists and the interested public.

The ornithological collection is also a frequent point of contact for birds found dead in Hamburg and the surrounding area. The finds are brought in by the public or nature conservation organisations. A prerequisite for the inclusion of new specimens in the collection is the documentation of the place and date of discovery, collector and, if applicable, further collection data as a basis for the collection to be used for scientific purposes. Occasionally, tropical birds from zoos are added to the collection.

In recent years, thanks to advances in DNA sequencing technology, requests from external institutions for the use of the ornithological collection have increasingly involved the use of tissue for molecular genetic analyses. However, data on distribution, history and morphology are still in demand.

The collection material is generally catalogued. Database searches have been partially possible since development began in 1994 and have been further improved since 2005 with adaptation to the "Darwin Core".