Ornithology's study skin collections total about 60,000 specimens. These collections are strongest for the Great Plains of the United States and for Mexico, with additional holdings from across Central and South America, China, Borneo, Kenya, and Papua New Guinea. Collections of special importance include series of more than 14,000 House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), which formed the basis for landmark scientific research by Richard Johnston and his students; extensive series of several North American species (Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus, meadowlarks Sturnella spp., Horned Lark Eremophila alpestris); series documenting many of the Great Plains hybrid zones; and the feathers of an extinct moa (Dinornithidae). Recent additions include extensive series from Guyana, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Paraguay, including many species otherwise poorly represented in scientific collections.

The avian osteological collections are extensive, totaling over 32,500 specimens, and ranked third largest in the world (Wood and Schnell 1986). This component of the collection has important strengths from the Great Plains of the United States, Mexico, and northern South America. Important holdings include critical and unique Ecuadorian series, extensive recent Australian material, and a large series of steamer-ducks (Tachyeres sp.). Recent collecting activities have built South American skeletal holdings into an important collection, with material from poorly represented sectors such as the Atlantic Forest, the Yucatan Peninsula, Guyana, and montane Central America

 

 

Although fluid-preserved specimens were not an early focus of Ornithology activities, the collections at KU were ranked seventh in North America at the time of the last summary of anatomical holdings (Wood et al. 1982). More recently, as part of Prum's research program, these collections have grown significantly, with important holdings of suboscine passeriform birds, among other groups. Now housed with ample space and ideal storage conditions in an NSF- and State of Kansas-funded addition, this collection is seeing increased research applications.

 

The frozen tissue collection is the fastest-growing in Ornithology, having more than quintupled over the past five years. As part of Ornithology's active Neotropical collecting program, two collecting expeditions have been conducted yearly since 1993. This material, coming from little-collected areas such as the Guianan Shield, the Yucatan Peninsula, the Chaco, the Cerrado, and the Atlantic Forest of southeastern South America, includes many unique and uncommon samples now increasingly in demand from molecular systematic laboratories. The collection sees intense use from both within KU and in the systematic community at large, and is quickly becoming one of the most important Neotropical avian tissue resources worldwide.