There are hundreds of thousands of bird specimens in Field Museum's collections. Take a look at some of the ways these specimens are prepared and stored so that scientists and researchers can access and study them! 

Any good organization system needs a good storage solution, and Field Museum has lots of storage space! 

This image shows just a few of the hundreds of shelves in the Museum's bird collections in which bird specimens are organized and preserved. 

There are many ways bird and other museum specimens are prepared and preserved so they can be kept and stored for long periods of time without deteriorating. In the bird specimens pictured, all internal organs have been removed and stored separately to reduce degradation, and these skins have been stuffed with cotton.

This image shows a stuffed bird in which you can see the cotton poking through the bird's eye-hole. 

Every specimen in the collection also includes a tag with important information about the species, collection, and concession information (where the specimen came from, if it was donated or purchased from another individual or institution). Some of the museum's collections are over 100 years old! 

For some research studies, scientists need to inspect not only the skin, feathers, and organs of a bird specimen, but to take a look at the bones and skeletal system. To make this possible, these specimens' bones are cleared using flesh-eating beetles, a species of beetle that consume skin and muscle tissue, pictured here. Once the beetles have consumed the majority of the specimen's flesh, preparatory staff make the final cleaning touches and usable bones ready for research or then stored in the colleciton. 

Here are some bird skeletons that have been cleaned and prepared  by Museum staff, and organized according to which specimen they came form. 

Specimens can also be preserved by submerging them in jars with 70% ethyl alcohol solution. This allows researchers to access the organs and soft parts of the organism that would decay otherwise, to conduct organ tissue analysis or extract DNA.

Recall from earlier in this resource kit: What are some of the reasons scientists utilize genomic analysis?

The Northern Flicker is a species of woodpecker. 

Observe how this woodpecker's wings have been spread to showcase the speckled coloration across its wings and back. 

The Northern Flicker is a medium-sized bird of the woodpecker family. 

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Field Museum

Northern Flicker

The Northern flickers belly and interior wing coloration are bright and lighter in color than the back and exterior wings. Compare this coloration with the next bird specimen. What similarities or differences do you notice? 

Do you think coloration can be used as evidence to support common ancestry and evolution? Why or why not?

Like the Northern Flicker, the White-Throated sparrows belly and interior wings are lighter in color than it's back plumage. 

What hypotheses might you make for this difference in coloration? 

The white-throated sparrow is large relative to other sparrows, and can be found in woods, at forest edges, thickets, overgrown fields, parks, and woodsy suburbs. This specimen was found near McCormack Place in Chicago. 

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White-throated Sparrow

The White-Throated sparrow is a bird found in forests and forest edges. Observe this bird's dark grey-brown back coloration. 

Standards for Museum Specimens - Birds