The historical bird egg collection

The egg collection comprises more than 5,000 specimens from six different continents and represents over 1,500 bird species. The oldest specimen dates back to 1853. The collection includes eggs from a wide range of bird families and geographic regions worldwide, reflecting both historical egg-collecting practices and avian diversity.

In addition, it contains exceptionally rare specimens, such as an egg of the Pallas’s Cormorant (Urile perspicillatus), a species now considered globally extinct (the only known specimen worldwide – Photo 1); an egg of the Great Bustard (Otis tarda) from Mount Parnassus, a species that has not bred in Greece for more than a century (Photo 2); and eggs of species from areas where they have since disappeared, such as the Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus) from Mount Parnitha (Photo 3).

Such collections are not only archives of the past, but also dynamic tools for studying evolution and environmental changes in birds.

Photos: A. Christopoulos.