UF FLMNH Ornithology

Tom Webber1

1 Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, 32611-7800, Gainesville, United States

Corresponding author(s): Tom Webber (twebber@flmnh.ufl.edu)

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

FLMNH Ornithology Collection

Abstract

The FLMNH Recent bird skeleton collection of 27,500 specimens is approximately fifth largest in the world in number of specimens and species. In 1992, the FLMNH received the Recent bird skeleton collection assembled by Prof. Pierce Brodkorb of the University of Florida's Department of Zoology. With the assistance of an NSF collection improvement grant, this skeleton collection was computer-cataloged and integrated into the FLMNH bird collection.

The bird skin collection contains approximately 24,000 specimens. These are mostly traditional study skins, but in recent years we have prepared a large proportion of new specimens with spread wings and associated skeletons. In 1992, the division also received the collection of approximately 3,000 skins assembled by Prof. Brodkorb. 

The skeleton and skin collections between them represent about 3,700 species in about 1,380 genera.

The egg collection, consisting of 10,400 sets representing 733 species, is 11th largest in North America in number of sets and 15th largest in number of species. It represents approximately 90% of the species and subspecies of North American birds. The egg collection includes original collectors' data slips and collector's field notes. 

The bird sound collection, in the FLMNH Bioacoustic Archives, with 24,000 cataloged recordings representing about 3,200 species, is perhaps third or fourth largest in the world in number of species. In the western hemisphere it is the second largest in number of species and third largest in number of recordings. We are now processing one of our largest accessions ever, the collection of Ben B. Coffey, Jr., with thousands of high-quality recordings from the southeastern USA and the Neotropics.

Keywords: Occurrence, Specimen

Data published through GBIF: http://ipt.vertnet.org:8080/iptstrays/resource?r=flmnh_birds

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: The bird skin and skeleton collections range across the class Aves, representing 27 orders, 129 families, and about 1,400 genera. Rarities include Ivory-billed Woodpeckers, Dusky Seaside Sparrows, Passenger Pigeons, Carolina Parakeets, and Great Auks.

The egg collection is rich in sets of raptor eggs, including Bald Eagles, Ospreys, Broad-winged Hawks, Red-shouldered Hawks, Crested Caracaras, and American Kestrels, and the Florida races of Seaside Sparrows and Clapper Rails. Rarities include sets of Passenger Pigeon, Carolina Parakeet, and Bachman's Warbler.

Some taxonomic groups especially well represented in the sound collection are tinamous, trogons, woodpeckers, antbirds, New World flycatchers, wrens, New World wood warblers, and corvids.
Taxonomic ranks
Class: Aves
Common names: Birds

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: The Recent bird skeleton collection contains specimens from 47 U.S. states and 103 countries. The top ten states in decreasing order are Florida, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Georgia, Alaska, New York, Texas, Arizona, and Virginia.  The top ten countries are United States, Mexico, Netherlands, Costa Rica, Kenya, Panama, Zimbabwe, Suriname, Canada, and Australia.

The bird skin collection contains specimens from 45 U.S. states and 77 countries. The top ten states in decreasing order are Florida, Georgia, Rhode Island, Connecticut, California, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Maine, North Carolina, and Alaska. The top ten countries are  US,  Mexico,  Honduras,  Kenya,  Colombia,  Cuba,  Philippines,  Canada,  Suriname, and Haiti. 

Egg collection is especially rich in sets from New England and Florida.

The sound collection's geographical strengths include North America, especially Florida, and the Neotropics, with smaller but notable numbers of recordings from Africa, Australia, and Southeast Asia.
Coordinates: 90°0'0''S and 90°0'0''N Latitude; 180°0'0''W and 180°0'0''E Longitude 

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive UF FLMNH Ornithology
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: http://ipt.vertnet.org:8080/iptstrays/archive.do?r=flmnh_birds
Publication date of data: 2018-07-12
Language: English
Licences of use: Public Domain (CC0 1.0)

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2013-06-12
Hierarchy level: Dataset