Bird stamp

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Since the advent of crewed flight, postal services have used birds as a common illustration for air mail stamps. 967 -20C/ Multicolored -"Columbia Jays" -C71.jpg
Since the advent of crewed flight, postal services have used birds as a common illustration for air mail stamps.
1875 stamp of Japan featuring illustration of a wagtail. Japanese bird stamp 15sen.jpg
1875 stamp of Japan featuring illustration of a wagtail.
2024 Colombia stamp depicting the Long-tailed Sylph. Long-tailed Sylph, Colombia 2024.png
2024 Colombia stamp depicting the Long-tailed Sylph.

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

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 2024, over 40,000 bird stamps have been issued around the world, depicting more than 4,000 species of birds. [5]

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. [6]

The Bird Stamp Society publishes Flight four times a year. 1,2 June 2024 Flight 5-6-24.png
The Bird Stamp Society publishes Flight four times a year.

References and sources

Notes
  1. ↑ Esten, Sidney (1941), "Birds on Stamps", Stamps, 35: 20
  2. 1 2 Koeppel 2006, p. 14.
  3. 1 2 Malcolm Ogilvie, "Birds on Stamps" Archived 2015-11-18 at the Wayback Machine , 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. ↑ Scharning, Kjell. "Statistics". Theme Birds on Stamps. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  6. ↑ "The Bird Stamp Society brings bird stamp collectors together". The Bird Stamp Society. 2015. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
Sources
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