Carnegie Museum of Natural History
One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
Birds are incredibly important to Carnegie Museum of Natural History. The museum's Section of Birds contains nearly 190,000 specimens of birds. The most important of these are the 555 holotypes and syntypes. The Section of Birds staff also cares for approximately 196 specimens of extinct birds as well as specimens of many rare species collected decades—if not more than a century—ago.
The name of the species was established by Alexander Wilson in 1810, who collected a specimen from a magnolia tree in Mississippi.
Powdermill Nature Reserve’s avian research center is part of Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s biological research station in Rector, Pennsylvania. The research center operates a bird banding station, conducts bioacoustical research, and performs flight tunnel analysis with the goal of reducing window collisions.
This bird is the smallest of the empids and can be identified by its relatively distinct (and oval) eyering, small bill, white throat, dark gray/black legs, and emargination of primary 6.
Powdermill Nature Reserve’s avian research center is part of Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s biological research station in Rector, Pennsylvania. The research center operates a bird banding station, conducts bioacoustical research, and performs flight tunnel analysis with the goal of reducing window collisions.
One of the most common sparrows at Powdermill, this bird can be found perched on low, dense vegetation singing its song.
Powdermill Nature Reserve’s avian research center is part of Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s biological research station in Rector, Pennsylvania. The research center operates a bird banding station, conducts bioacoustical research, and performs flight tunnel analysis with the goal of reducing window collisions.
This adult female has nearly all white, rather than the usual yellow, wing and tail patches.
Powdermill Nature Reserve’s avian research center is part of Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s biological research station in Rector, Pennsylvania. The research center operates a bird banding station, conducts bioacoustical research, and performs flight tunnel analysis with the goal of reducing window collisions.
At first glance, these two birds may seem unrelated, but they are actually male and female of the same type. Females can be tricky to identify when birding, but look for the heavily streaked breast on a drably plumaged warbler.
Powdermill Nature Reserve’s avian research center is part of Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s biological research station in Rector, Pennsylvania. The research center operates a bird banding station, conducts bioacoustical research, and performs flight tunnel analysis with the goal of reducing window collisions.
Did you know that over the last 55 years, Carnegie Museum of Natural History staff have banded nearly three quarters of a million birds at Powdermill Nature Reserve, the museum’s environmental research center in Rector, Pennsylvania?
Powdermill’s banding program began in 1961 and is the longest continually running banding program in the United States. Data from the program has been used to show that birds are adapting to climate change by breeding a month earlier than they did in 1961.
Powdermill Nature Reserve’s avian research center is part of Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s biological research station in Rector, Pennsylvania. The research center operates a bird banding station, conducts bioacoustical research, and performs flight tunnel analysis with the goal of reducing window collisions.
