Bird Curatorial Manual | Organization of the Collection

Organization of Specimens

Taxonomic Arrangement

The arrangement of bird families in the MVZ collection in based primarily on the American Ornithological Society Check-list of North American Birds, Clements Checklist, and IOC World Bird List. In cases where there was conflict, MVZ Curators made an executive decision based on the best available evidence.

Geographic Order for Bird Skins

Bird skins are arranged geographically within the lowest taxonomic unit that was identified (e.g., species or subspecies). Use the following guidelines for the higher geographic order of skins (country, state, count). See “Installing Birds” for more detail on how to arrange skins in the collection.

Organization of California Counties

Del Norte
Humboldt
Siskiyou
Shasta
Trinity
Mendocino
Lake
Sonoma
Napa
Marin
Modoc
Lassen
Plumas
Sierra
Nevada
Placer
El Dorado
Amador
Alpine
Calaveras
Tuolumne
Mariposa
Tehama
Glenn
Butte
Colusa
Sutter
Yuba
Yolo
Solano
Sacramento
San Joaquin
Stanislaus
Merced
Madera
Fresno
Tulare
Kings
Kern
San Francisco
San Mateo
Contra Costa
Alameda
Santa Clara
Santa Cruz
San Benito
Monterey
San Luis Obispo
Santa Barbara
     San Miguel Island
     Santa Rosa Island
     Santa Cruz Island
Ventura
     San Nicolas Island
Los Angeles
     Santa Barbara Island
     Santa Catalina Island
     San Clemente Island
Orange
Mono
Inyo
San Bernardino
Riverside
San Diego
Imperial

Taxonomic Updates

YEARLY UPDATES

At least once per year the supplement or updated pages of the American Ornithological Society, Clements Checklist, and the IOC World Bird List should be consulted to determine what changes should be made to the MVZ bird collection. The MVZ Bird Taxonomic Checklist also must be updated with any changes made to Arctos and the physical collection.

For North American birds, updates are based on the latest annual supplement to the AOS Checklist. The other sources are best for non-North American species.

Another useful source is Avibase, which includes all  bird species of the world and their taxonomic classification based on different authorities. Avibase nicely tracks changes in classification through time.

DETERMINING UPDATES

The first step is to determine what updates need to be made in the collections. Changes published in the supplements may include species splits or lumps, changes at higher taxonomic levels (e.g., moving species to a different genus, moving genera to a different family, changes to subfamily or order, etc.), changes in linear sequence, distributional changes, and changes to English and French names. We are primarily concerned with species splits/lumps and higher level taxonomic changes that involve moving species to a different genus, subfamily/family, or order. 

Changes in linear sequence are important but can be more difficult to implement, especially if the changes involve moving large chunks of specimens. Some changes in linear sequence may result from higher level taxonomic changes such as elimination of subfamilies within a family; these higher taxonomic changes also are important to know about, but may not be implemented in the collection if they involve large-scale moving of specimens.

To track the changes that need to be made, create a Google doc spreadsheet which has the taxonomic change and columns for the number of specimens or observations in MVZ that are affected by the change. Counts for specimens should be broken up by skin, skeleton, egg/nest, and fluid. Use Arctos to determine counts for specimens and observations affected by a particular change.

Example spreadsheet

UPDATING THE COLLECTION

Once the changes have been determined, the next step is to find specimens that need to be updated in the collections. There are three main steps to updating the collection: (1) updating specimen labels/tags; (2) physically moving specimens to a new place in the collection, based on the updating taxonomy; and (3)  printing new drawer and case labels, if needed.

All changes to specimen labels/tags and physical placement should be done for each update before moving on to the next update. New drawer and case labels can be printed all at once, when all changes are completed, for efficiency and to save label paper!
 
Physical changes only are made to skins, skeletons, eggs/nests, and fluids. Other parts of the same specimens (tissues, anatomical parts) are not changed other than in the database.

 

Updating Taxonomy in Arctos