Eggs...

The WFVZ houses approximately 190,000 sets of eggs (equal to more than 1,000,000 individual eggs), representing approximately 4,000 bird species from around the world, and collected from more than 300 individual and institutional collections. The egg collection of the WFVZ is the largest in North America, and likely in the world.

The Western Foundation’s collections have contributed to multiple scientific fields (e.g., conservation biology, natural history, ornithology, toxicology). For example, the WFVZ provided photocopies of egg records for more than 500 species, and egg measurements for more than 400 species, covered by the Birds of North America series, edited by Alan Poole and Frank Gill. The Foundation’s egg sets have also figured prominently in studies of eggshell thinning due to                                             Assorted Prinia eggs.
contaminant loads (e.g., DDT, heavy metals, and organocholorines). Since 2000 alone, the WFVZ has contributed data to more than 200 publications. Thus, the value of the WFVZ’s collections for science, and for the conservation of bird species, continues to be evidenced.

Staff of the WFVZ provide egg measurements (i.e., length, breadth, and shell thickness) to researchers requiring such information. Please contact René Corado, Collections Manager , for information on such measurements.

Great-crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus) egg set.