From the time the earliest naturalists came to the new world, the warbler family (Parulidae) has excited both the eyes and the ears of any who notices them. Warblers are one of the most popular and colorful families of songbirds. Their songs are synonymous with the outdoors.

One of the main thrusts of past museum work was the collection of specimens, whether they were vegetable, animal or mineral. Although collecting animal specimens has decreased in most institutions recently, the specimens already collected provide valuable information to document the range or existence of a species, understand its biology and even unraveling the evolutionary history of a group through modern DNA methods.

The website before you is an attempt to use these specimens in a new and innovative way. Museum collections offer the chance to get close to birds in order to witness the finer details of plumage and size not only for professional biologists but also for bird banders, carvers and also for bird enthusiasts.

The best place to start in on our Identification page. At the top of the page is a list of all the warblers that occur in Canada. Below this is a pair of pages that examine two groups of warblers which can pose problems to the beginning birder. By selecting any of the bird names, you go to a page which supplies a description of the bird and its identification features. Below the field images is a link that will take you to images of museum study skins which focues on specific identification features. For further information on these pages please go to the Help page. Once familiar with warblers, try our quiz.