Seminar: How Century-old Specimens Reveal New Birds
Speaker: Andrés Cuervo
When: Monday, November 16, 2026, noon–1 p.m.
Where: Carnegie Museum of Art Theater and online via Zoom
Tickets: Free. Museum admission not required.
In the 1910s, a Carnegie Museum collector explored Colombia’s Santa Marta mountains, from Caribbean beaches to snowcapped peaks, and shipped many specimens to Pittsburgh. Carnegie Museum of Natural History curators described many as species new to science. One owl waited a century in Carnegie’s cabinets before being named in 2017, and more such discoveries await.
Revisiting century-old collecting sites across Colombia, Andrés Cuervo, director of Colombia’s National Bird Collection, and his collaborators have found that birds have changed size and shape as climate and landscapes shifted. He explains why old collections and new expeditions are needed to find new birds and to track the impact of humans.
