West side of the Sandia Mountains, New Mexico (Andrew B. Johnson)

Mission

The Museum of Southwestern Biology Division of Birds seeks to maximize its potential and function as a teaching and research resource for all interested researchers. The Division of Birds serves as a repository for materials documenting the distribution of and research on birds of New Mexico and the Southwest, and serves as a resource for these materials for the ornithological community.

About the Collection

The Division of Birds maintains an extensive research collection of birds from western North America and around the world. Specimens collected in New Mexico by William J. Koster in 1938 formed the basis of the original collection. The collection consisted of only a couple of hundred study skins of birds from New Mexico until 1955, when James S. Findley became curator upon his arrival at UNM. Over 3000 specimens were added over the subsequent 13 years, due in large part to the work of graduate student David M. Niles during the 1960s. J. David Ligon began as curator in 1968, and although his research program focused on behavior, he oversaw the addition of 3000 specimens over 21 years, including spectacular series of Pinyon Jays and other corvids. Robert W. Dickerman took over as curator in 1989 after retiring from Cornell Medical School, and the collection increased fourfold over the subsequent 18 years through field collecting, salvage, acquisition of private collections, and the integration of the USGS Collection. In 2003, Andrew B. Johnson was hired as the first fulltime collections manager. In 2007, Christopher C. Witt was hired as curator. His ongoing research projects include work on the evolution of Andean birds that has resulted in significant new accessions of specimens from Peru. The total size of the collection is now over 28,000 specimens, approximately 20% of which are associated with frozen tissue samples that are archived in the Division of Genomic Resources.

Personnel associated with the Division conduct research involving evolutionary and behavioral adaptations of birds throughout the Southwest and the world.

Most of the Division's holdings are from the American Southwest. However, the Division also has representatives of a large percentage of the families of the birds of the world. It also contains specimens of threatened, endangered and extinct species of North America. The Division also maintains a collection of skeletons, a small egg collection, and sample specimens used for teaching.

The Division is the repository for birds collected by personnel of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. Birds salvaged by New Mexico rehabilitators are also added to the collection. Important donated collections include the voucher specimens of Amadeo M. Rea, used in his book titled "Once a River." Other donations include the raptors and game birds of J.M. Campbell and a portion of the J. Stokley Ligon collections, and a collection of birds of the world contributed by Dale A. Zimmerman.

The Division of Birds offers taxonomic services and research materials for students and researchers, and information and assistance for teaching and public service. Skin, skeleton and tissue collections are fully computerized, and parts of this database are available on the internet.

Geographic Concentration (%)

Size and Taxonomic Composition

Orders	%
Passeriformes	66.7
Charadriiformes	5.8
Anseriformes	5.1
Falconiiformes	5.1
Piciformes	3.8
Total	86.5