Bird Hall
Diversity and Fascination
Exhibition
Copyrights
Staatliches Naturhistorisches Museum
Exhibition
Tue–Sun 9am–5pm | Wed 9am–7pm | Mon closed
Staatliches Naturhistorisches Museum
Pockelsstr. 10
38106 Braunschweig
free
accessible
Birds have always exerted a great fascination on humans. Hence the museum dedicated a whole room to these unique and diverse animals.
Eggs of ground breeding birds in the Bird Hall of the Natural History Museum
© Staatliches Naturhistorisches Museum
More than 200 taxidermy mounts and other objects, as well as multiple media stations, transport our visitors into the world of these feathered creatures of the sky, direct descendants of the dinosaurs that have inhabited this planet for far longer than humans have. From reproduction to communication, diet, and migration, all topics of these vertebrates’ lives are covered.
A memorable highlight is the so-called bird flight line that has been installed right below the ceiling. Here the red kite, grey heron, and mute swan seem to float above our visitors, showcasing their impressive wingspans.
With more than 52,000 specimen and around 19,000 eggs, our museum’s collection of birds is the biggest in Lower Saxony and one of the most extensive in the whole country. Around half of the 11,000 worldwide known bird species are represented in this collection. The oldest specimens of the collection (e.g. the pied raven.) date back to the foundation of the “Herzogliches Kunst- und Naturaliencabinett” in 1754. In the 19th century, the collection experienced its greatest expansion under the directors Johann Heinrich Blasius and Wilhelm Blasius. Multiple private collections (Platen, Homeyer, and Grabowski) with a geographical focus on Southeast Asia were integrated into the museum’s collection. Middle America and Eastern Europe are also well represented. A notable feature of this collection is its high number of extinct species like the great auk, passenger pigeon, laughing owl, and Carolina parakeet.
Pied raven (Corvus corax varius morpha leucophaeus)
© Staatliches Naturhistorisches Museum
We are grateful for the support the new Bird Hall received from:
