![Japanese bird stamp 15sen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Japanese_bird_stamp_15sen.jpg)
A bird stamp is a
postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...
that illustrates one or more
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
s. It is a popular theme in
topical stamp collecting
Topical or thematic stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps relating to a particular subject or concept. Topics can be almost anything, from stamps on stamps, birds, trains and poets on stamps, to famous physicians and scientists, al ...
.
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
The northern goshawk (; ''Accipiter gentilis'') is a species of medium-large raptor in the family Accipitridae, a family which also includes other extant diurnal raptors, such as eagles, buzzards and harriers. As a species in the genus ''Accipit ...
'' and
bean goose
The bean goose (''Anser fabalis'' or ''Anser serrirostris'') is a goose that breeds in northern Europe and Eurosiberia. It has two distinct varieties, one inhabiting taiga habitats and one inhabiting tundra. These are recognised as separate spe ...
.
[Malcolm Ogilvie]
"Birds on Stamps"
''Birds of Britain: The Monthly Web Magazine for Birdwatchers'', March 2002. 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.
As of 2003, over 10,000 bird stamps had been issued around the world.
A prominent collector is Chris Gibbins whose collection of over twelve thousand stamps portrays about three thousand species. Organisations that cover this field include the
American Topical Association
The American Topical Association (ATA) is a US-based philatelic
Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. Philately involves m ...
and The Bird Stamp Society.
References and sources
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BIRDS ON STAMPS
External links
Birds of the World on Postage Stamps– Chris Gibbins' collection online
Birds on stamps
Topical postage stamps
{{philately-stub