Life with Dead Birds

mesknoxx : > We need to collectively devote more efforts to our pollinators, > it’s a matter of life and death!

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a-book-of-creatures : > zoomar > : >  >  >>  Do Birds Have Ghosts? >  > There are birds who are ghosts, so yes? Presumably? Uncertain, more research needed.

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Hope in the time of COVID-19 : Hi, all. It’s been a while. I hope that you’re well. I hope that your loved ones’ are safe, and that you are getting through this time as best you can. No...

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This is a really strange post to be writing. I’ve been writing LwDB for just shy of four years now, and after hundreds of posts, endless species of birds, and many research tangents, I’ve re...

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Thanks for your patience with this one. I’ve been thinking on many of the conversations from last month’s “Interpreting Death” panel at the National Association for Interpretation’s Na...

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Last weekend, at a party filled with family and friends, we celebrated the retirement of Janet Hinshaw, collections manager of the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology Bird Division. UMMZ sta...

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Hi everyone! Instead of a standard post this week, I’m attending the National Association for Interpretation’s National Conference in New Orleans! I’ll be speaking on the “Interpreting...

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At this time of year, some birds are coming to Michigan, and others are leaving.  Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis) are migrating south to the warmth of Florida and Cuba. They’re easier to s...

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The UMMZ Bird Division shares lab space with the Mammal Division, leading to some tables being covered in warblers while others are covered in rodents. The Eastern Chipmunks (Tamias striatus) a...

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I’m trying very hard to think of something interesting and educational to say about this specimen, but my brain keeps repeating “It’s a snake head! It’s a snake head in a jar! How cool i...

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Great Walls of Fish, Batman! Here we take a slight departure from dead birds, because this wall of dead fish is incredible. Some jars hold only one specimen, whereas others, like this jar full ...

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This Crested Caracara (Caracara cheriway) skull does not look nearly punk enough for its owner’s species. Crested Caracaras are birds of prey, in the same family as falcons, and regularly eat...

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Kirtland’s Warblers spend their summers here in Michigan, and as fall migration season kicks into gear, I’m looking at all of the amazing work that went into preserving their breeding grounds...

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Keeping your eggs safe? Well, it takes a village…weaver. Village Weavers (Ploceus cucullatus) roost in large groups, and there may be dozens of nests all hanging from one tree. Having this ma...

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All of these American Coot (Fulica americana) eggs came from the same nest! Must have been some busy parents of ten. While coots normally lay anywhere from eight to twelve eggs at a time, there�...

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This beautifully-crafted net of grasses wasn’t made by sometime taking a break from knitting. It was made by a bird! The Ploceidae family of weaverbirds contains dozens of species with an inc...

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Specimen notes can really tell a story. The Palm Warblers (Setophaga palmarum) that created this nest managed to raise five young to fledging. Palm Warblers usually only lay four or five eggs i...

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Time to fly? Birds that leave the nest at the wrong time can bring disaster on the whole family : Pulling together photos and new post ideas for the next few weeks. Please enjoy this short arti...

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The UMMZ has a lot of songbird wings.  Many of these wings come to us from birds whose skins aren’t entirely salvageable, due to deaths by predator, car, or bullet. Others are stored this w...

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The UMMZ collection recently switched over to a new storage system for whole songbird wings. Instead of storing them flat in drawers, like whole study skins, each wing specimen now gets its own c...

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