10-10: Bird Collections, From the Inside, with Nick Mason

10-10: Bird Collections, From the Inside, with Nick Mason

From The American Birding Podcast by American Birding Association

March 12, 2026 · 48 min

About this episode

Dr. Nick Mason discusses the significant bird collections at the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural History and the future of bird science.

The state of Louisiana hosts one of the world's largest repositories of ornithological knowledge, the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural History . With nearly 200,000 bird specimens, including important collections from the tropical Americas, this institution informs a lot of what we know about bird taxonomy in this hemisphere. Dr Nick Mason is the curator of that collection, and he joins us to talk about the fascinating work done at this place and what museums are doing to make sure bird science stays on a sound footing into the future. Also, the ABA's live What's This Bird program is breaking ground in online phenology... sort of. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it! This episode is brought to you by Naturalist Journeys and Birding Louisiana .

People in this episode

Guest: Nick Mason

Topics covered

  • bird collections
  • ornithology
  • museum science
  • bird taxonomy
  • online phenology

Keywords

  • bird specimens
  • ornithological knowledge
  • Louisiana
  • bird science
  • taxonomic collections

Sponsors

Naturalist Journeys, Birding Louisiana

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Louisiana State University Museum of Natural History, American Birding Association

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