Use the By Field search to find specimen data that match values in specific database fields. Enter a value or choose one from the dropdown lists.

• Click the Search button to initiate a search. Clear resets all fields.
• Some lists are linked, so for example, choosing a Country narrows the choices for Province/State/Territory, and District/County. Dropdown choices also narrow as you type, for example, typing anat in the Family field might narrow the choice to Anatidae.
• Check Only Records with Images if you want to restrict the search to records with multimedia content.
• You can force an exact search by surrounding your search text in double-quotes. Exact means exact, the search is case-sensitive and must match the value of the entire field. An exact search will also take much longer to complete.
• You will receive a warning when you enter invalid information in the text fields. For example, Catalog Numbers are composed strictly of letters and numbers; other characters raise a warning.

Enter your keywords separated by spaces and click Search. Records that match your search terms will be returned.

• You can join terms with OR to match any, e.g. eritrea OR djibouti
• You can include the terms image(s) or type(s) to find records that have images or that are type specimens.
• To search for Catalog Numbers, replace spaces with dashes, e.g. instead of ABC 12345, use ABC-12345. Do not include any other terms.

Note that searching for common (vernacular) names may not yield the expected results. Associating common names with specimen records is a work in progress.

Keyword search example: icterus costa rica type

The results of your searches can be displayed in Grid (a sortable, customizable table) or Gallery View (best for reviewing images). Use the Switch button to cycle between these views.

• You can choose whether to display 5, 10, 20, 50, or 100 records at a time.

In Grid View:

• You can choose the columns to display from any column's dropdown menu (mouse into a column header and click the dropdown icon). Under Columns, click the name to display or hide the field (you do not need to click the checkbox specifically).
• You can drag a column header to change its order of appearance in the grid.
• You can also drag the edge of a column to make it wider or narrower.
• Click in the expansion () column to view the full record.

In Gallery View:

• Click the image to view the full record.

See Exporting Results for information on downloading results to, for example, Excel.

Open the full collection record by clicking the expansion button () in Grid View, or anywhere within the image frame in Gallery View. Inverse expansion buttons () indicate records with multimedia (typically, images).

• In the Record window, metadata for the multimedia content is available when you mouseover the thumbnail.
• Clicking the thumbnail opens the content in your browser or other appropriate application.
• Record windows may be resized or moved within the browser window.
• You may have up to ten Record windows open at any one time.

Sort results in Grid View by clicking the column header (or by choosing Sort from the column's dropdown menu).

• Sort on multiple columns by consecutively sorting columns in reverse order. For example, to view results sorted by Country and Province/State, first sort by Province/State and then sort again by Country.
• For any column you can choose to sort in Ascending or Descending order.

Export all or selected results by clicking the Export Results as CSV button in the bottom toolbar in Grid or Gallery View.

• Select individual records for Export by checking the export selection box (along the left edge of the Grid View grid).
• Clear all selections with the Clear Selections button in the bottom toolbar.
• Results are exported as comma-separated-values, one record per line, which can be saved to disk or opened directly with applications such as Microsoft Excel.

Here are a few search tips:

• Query results are limited to 5000 records. Avoid very general queries that return very large numbers of records, e.g. searching for passeriformes.
• You can choose which columns to display in the Grid View of your search results. Move your pointer to any column header and click on the dropdown arrow. Scroll to Columns and then check or uncheck column names to show or hide those columns in the grid.

To create a link to specific records at NMNH provide a querystring for:

https://collections.nmnh.si.edu/search/birds/?QUERYSTRING

where QUERYSTRING is (use a plus-sign to separate case-insensitive terms):

• One or more CATALOG NUMBERS, e.g.
  • birds/?nb=b-42071+90475+354010
  • birds/?nb=b48220
• The NAME of a specimen, e.g.:
  • birds/?qn=coua
  • birds/?qn=ficedula+basilanica+samarensis
• The NAME of a TYPE specimen, e.g.:
  • birds/?qt=otus+asio+maxwelliae
  • birds/?qt=sialia+mexicana
• A GENERAL query, searching on any combination of: NAME (qn), FAMILY (fm), TYPE STATUS (ts), COLLECTOR (cr), COLLECTION (cn), EXPEDITION NAME (ex), GENETIC SAMPLE (gs), or WITH IMAGES ONLY (io), e.g.:
  • birds/?q=ts+type+ex+peruvian+1914-1915+io+1

    (Specimens with the type status Type collected on a Peruvian expedition from 1914-1915, with images)

  • birds/?q=fm+vireonidae+cr+munro

    (Specimens of Vireonidae collected by Munro)

  • birds/?q=gs+1+fm+pycnonotidae

    (Genetic Samples from specimens in the family Pycnonotidae)

• To open the Collections Search to a specific search tab, e.g.
  • birds/?ti=1 (Keywords Search)
  Tabs are numbered left to right, beginning with zero.

It is best to use only letters, numbers, pluses (+), dashes (-), and commas in your querystrings, and to avoid other characters.

Please use the Feedback page to report problems you find with the data, or with using these search pages.