Explore Bird Hall to discover the many shapes, sizes, colors, and characteristics of birds. Bird Hall features more than 300 taxidermy mounts and study skins of birds that range from tiny hummingbirds to massive Golden eagles. Compare the variations of owls or examine the elaborate feathery plume of a superb Lyrebird up close.
Bird Hall has an array of birds collected over two centuries that illustrate many topics: Endangered and Extinct Species, Flightless, Tropical Rainforests, Birds of Paradise, Sexual Dimorphism, Avian Reproduction, Aquatic Birds, Adaptations for Feeding, and Defining Species. The lower hallway mostly displays non-passerines (non-perching birds) found in Pennsylvania: ducks, raptors, herons, doves, shorebirds, gallinaceous birds (ground-feeding game birds), and more.
Meet our Ornithologists
Learn about the Bird Collection at the Museum
The bird collection at the museum, the Section of Birds, contains nearly 190,000 specimens of birds.
Some ornithologists are Bird Banders. What is that?
Blogs about Birds
Echoes of Freedom in an Owl’s Call
by Pat McShea “Is that owl real?” Students who approached the museum activity station at a “Dream STEAM” event on Martin Luther …2022 Rector Christmas Bird Count Results
by Annie Lindsay On the morning of December 17, 2022, 41 birders assembled at Powdermill Avian Research Center to receive the maps …Feather and Bone Connections to American History
by Patrick McShea Within the Hall of North American Wildlife, a Passenger Pigeon taxidermy mount stands above a handful of other objects in a display …Chimney Swift Conservation
by Patrick McShea In urban, suburban, and even rural areas of southwestern Pennsylvania, the high-pitched twittering cries of circling Chimney Swifts create …
