AOU Committee on Bird Collections
Who Are We?
The Committee on Bird Collections is one of many committees of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU), the oldest and largest North American society for the scientific study of birds. This committee represents both traditional and non-traditional collections, including skins, skeletons, fluid-preserved material, eggs and nests, genetic resources, and sound or video holdings. Participation on the committee is voluntary. The Chair is appointed annually by the President of the AOU, and membership is determined by the President in consultation with the Chair.
Charge
To monitor the status of scientific collections of preserved avian material.
To disseminate knowledge of standards, permits, and techniques relative to the acquisition, maintenance, data management, and use of avian specimens and collections.
To make this information known to curators, managers, and users of collections, and to administrators of institutions owning or entrusted with collections.
To periodically conduct and publish inventories of collections holdings.
To maintain a liaison with related organizations.
Current Members
| Kevin Winker, Chair | University of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks | |
| John Bates | Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago | |
| Kim Bostwick | Museum of Vertebrates, Cornell University | |
| Robb Brumfield | Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University | |
| Carla Cicero | Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley | |
| Meade Krosby | Burke Museum, University of Washington | |
| Patricia Escalante Pliego | Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City | |
| A. Townsend Peterson | Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center, Kansas University |
Activities and Information
Committee members work on a variety of issues, including permits for scientific research and the importance of collecting voucher specimens. Members also are involved in specific projects relating to biodiversity informatics and collection surveys. All of these efforts are intended to benefit the scientific museum community in ornithology (curators, collection managers, researchers).
- Projects (Permits, Collection Surveys, Informatics)
- Tissue Collections
- Useful Collection-related Papers
- Collection-related Workshops or Symposia
- Supplies
AOU Policy Statement on Collecting
The AOU regards responsible collecting of birds as an essential research method for studying the biology, ecology, systematics, and genetics of wild birds. As in laboratory research, methods of collecting used by field workers follow humane guidelines. Specimen collection plays an essential role in documenting the biodiversity of poorly known regions. Collecting specimens from populations known to be endangered or in precipitous decline also has important scientific value, but should be exercised with extreme caution and careful documentation that removal of the proposed number of animals will not adversely affect the population's projected trajectory in size and genetic diversity. The AOU recognizes the difficulty of making these judgments. The AOU is working to develop explicit procedures and criteria for projecting population effects of collecting and evaluating them relative to its benefits. (Policy statement passed by the AOU Council at the 125th stated meeting, Laramie, Wyoming, 8-11 Aug 2007).
News Highlights
Members of the AOU Collections Committee are planning two symposia for the AOU meeting in Portland, Oregon, 4-8 August 2008 (click here for more information):
- A Beginner’s Guide to Collecting and Preparing Museum Specimens
- New Answers from Old Specimens
Links
- AVECOL-useful messages
- Avian Bird Collections, a list of links to museum research collections of birds (sponsored by AVECOL)
- BIRDNET, a resource on ornithology sponsored by the Ornithological Council
- List Servers of interest to ornithologists
- Natural Science Collections Alliance, a non-profit association for the support of natural science collections
- ORNithological Information System (ORNIS), a project to develop a distributed database of specimens in North American bird collections
- Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, an organization devoted to the development and preservation of natural history collections
- Wikipedia page on bird collections (prepared by the AOU Collections Committee)