Ornithological collection stored in the Zoologcial Museum counts about 120, skins, ca. 10,000 nests with egg clutches, ca. 3000 wet specimens in preservatives, over 1700 skeletons, and over 4000 tissue samples. Only recent bird species are represented in this collection.

By the total number of accumulated specimens, this collection takes the 2nd position in Russia after the Zoological Institute in St. Petersburg. Collection of egg clutches is the largest in the museums of the former USSR, and it is most representative in respect to bird species of Northern Palaearctic.

There are two peculiarities in the bird collecting. First, ornithology in general and collecting in particular has been developing in large part due to amateurs who gathered and owned private collections. Many of these collections were moved subsequently to museums, and their owners often have become acknowledged professional ornithologists.

Another important peculiarity is defined by laboriousness of preparing qualified study skins of birds suitable for long-term storage. Their preparation requests skills and time, so a collector is able to make just a limited number of scientifically valuable specimens in the field. That is why the growth rate of ornithological collections has never been as high as of other vertebrates. Therefore in many instances existing collections are still inadequate for certain research purposes, and new bird specimens are more than welcome to the Museum.

Curators

Pavel Stanislavovich Tomkovich - Head of Division, curator of oological collection and of collection of non-passerine birds.

Evgeniy Aleksandrovich Koblik - Senior Researcher, curator of mounted skins of passerine birds and of wet collection.

Yaroslav Andreevich Red'kin - Researcher, curator of study skins of passerine birds and of tissue samples, responsible for primary treatment of newly acquired materials.