When it opened in 1902, the American Museum of Natural History’s Hall of North American Birds was the first space in the world devoted to habitat dioramas. It was created by Museum ornithologist Frank M. Chapman, whose grasp of the power of the diorama paved the way for millions of Museum visitors to lose themselves in these engaging windows into the natural world.

Known today as the Leonard C. Sanford Hall of North American Birds, the gallery features dioramas of several places where bird species were threatened by habitat loss or hunting. Chapman, an ardent advocate for conservation, helped shape the views of President Theodore Roosevelt, a fellow birdwatcher who established America’s first federal bird reservation in 1903 in Florida. A bird sanctuary near Sagamore Hill, Roosevelt’s beloved home near Oyster Bay, New York, is depicted in a diorama in the Museum’s Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall.

A few bird species can be found worldwide, but most have adapted to a particular region—sometimes in remarkable ways. The twelve dioramas in the Museum’s Hall of Birds of the World each depict a major biome—a region with a particular community of living things, such as desert or tropical rainforest—along with representative bird species.

The American Museum of Natural History in New York City is one of the world’s preeminent scientific, educational, and cultural institutions, drawing millions of visitors each year.

Images

1. Birds of the East African Plains. Kedong Valley, Northwest of Nairobi, Kenya
2. Passenger Pigeons (Ectopistes migratorius). New York, Foraging for the Acorns of the Pin Oak (Quercus palustris)
3. Birds of Cuthbert Rookery. Southern Florida, Everglades National Park
4. Eastern Marsh Birds. The Marshes Bordering the Hackensack River and Newark Bay, New Jersey
5. Great Egret (Ardea alba). South Carolina
6. Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis). Prairie and Marsh of the Florida Interior
7. Birds of the High Andes. View Near Mt. Aconcagua, Argentina
8. Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos). Found in Europe, Asia, and North America
9. Birds of Australia. Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia
10. Birds of South Georgia. South Georgia Island, 1,200 Miles East of Cape Horn
11. Birds of Laysan Island. Hawaiian Archipelago
12. Birds of New Zealand. Historic Depiction of Lake Brunner in the South Island Alps of New Zealand
13. Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo). Slaty Fork, West Virginia. Leonard C. Sanford Hall of North American Birds
14. Boobies (Sula leucogaster) and Frigatebirds (Fregata magnificens). Cay Verde, The Bahamas
15. Birds of the Gobi Desert. Tsagan Nor (White Lake), Central Asia
16. Ostrich (Struthio camelus) and Warthog (Phacochoerus africanus). Kedong Valley, 50 Miles West of Nairobi, Kenya
17. Peruvian Guano Islands. Bay of Pisco, Peru, From the Southern Island of the Chincha Group
18. Birds of the East African Plains. Kedong Valley, Northwest of Nairobi, Kenya
19. Birds of Cuthbert Rookery. Southern Florida, Everglades National Park