Bird stamp

A bird stamp is a postage stamp that illustrates one or more birds. It is a popular theme in topical stamp collecting.[2]

Since the advent of manned flight, postal services have used birds as a common illustration for air mail stamps.[1]
1875 stamp of Japan featuring illustration of a wagtail.

Birds started appearing on stamps by 1875, when Japan issued a series of three stamps bearing stylized illustrations of the three species Motacilla alba, Accipiter gentilis and bean goose.[3][4] The first United States bird stamp, depicting an eagle with wings outspread, was issued in 1869 on Scott #116 and #121, on stamps that were issued for general mail usage. The UK issued its first in honor of "Nature Week" in 1963.[3] As of 2003, over 10,000 bird stamps had been issued around the world. A series of BIRD SPECIES NATIVE TO MYANMAR.[5] [6]

A prominent collector is Chris Gibbins whose collection of over twelve thousand stamps portrays about three thousand species.[2] Organisations that cover this field include the American Topical Association and The Bird Stamp Society.[7]

References and sources
Notes
  1. Esten, Sidney (1941), "Birds on Stamps", Stamps, 35: 20
  2. Koeppel 2006, p. 14.
  3. Malcolm Ogilvie, "Birds on Stamps", Birds of Britain: The Monthly Web Magazine for Birdwatchers, March 2002.
  4. "1875 Bird definitive stamps of Japan". colnect.com. Retrieved 2015-11-18.
  5. "Myanmar Postage Stamps issued during Military Coup D'état".
  6. Stanley Gibbons catalog listing for Collect Birds on Stamps 5th Edition Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  7. "The Bird Stamp Society brings bird stamp collectors together". The Bird Stamp Society. 2015. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
Sources
  • Bleeker, Sonia (1966), The Golden Book of Bird Stamps
  • Daly, Kathleen (1955), Bird Stamps
  • Eriksen, Hanne; Eriksen, Jens (1996), Collect Birds on Stamps, Stanley Gibbons, ISBN 9780852594087
  • Esten, Sidney (1954), Birds of the World on Stamps, American Topical Association
  • Bird Stamps of All Countries with a Natural History of Each Bird, Grosset & Dunlap, 1935
  • The World of Birds on Stamps, Hayes, 1975
  • Jackson, Christine (1978), Collecting Bird Stamps, ISBN 0854931260
  • Koeppel, Dan (2006), To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifelong Obsession, Penguin, ISBN 9781440627033
  • Lant, Hugh (1975), Bird Stamps of the World Check-List, ISBN 0950476803
  • Collect Birds on Stamps, Stanley Gibbons, 2002, ISBN 9780852595329
  • BIRDS ON STAMPS
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