Birds Perched, Birds Flying, Birds Aground

Animals of Argentina's national parks, a set of 5 stamps issued by Argentina on December 19, 1987. Two stamps show birds:

Golden-winged Cacique (Cacicus chrysopterus) in Baritu national park:

Kelp Goose (Chloephaga hybrida) in Tierra del Fuego national park:

Darwin's finches, known as the Galapagos finches, are a group of about fifteen species of passerine birds. They were first collected by Charles Darwin on the Galapagos Islands during the second voyage of the Beagle. Here are several stamps issued in sets commemorating Darwin, show Darwin's finches:

Great Britain - Finches standing on the famous fossil of Archaeopteryx, issued in 1999 as one in a set of four stamps shows scientific discoveries and developments. This stamp dedicated to Darwin's theory:

Centenary of the death of Charles Darwin, issued by Great Britain in 1982:

Bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin, issued for use in Vanuatu in 2009. Four species of finches found in the Galapagos Islands are shown on the stamps. Great design!



Bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin, issud by Great Britain in 2009. The stamp shows a classic illustration of evolutionary theory, made by Charles Darwin in 1845. The drawing shows the beaks of four species of finches found in the Galapagos Islands. I enclose the original drawing from Wikipedia:

Birds, prepared in 1995 by the autonomous government of Tuva but never issued. See note on the bottom about the position of this set:








during years 1994-1995, the autonomous government of Tuva officially prepared stamps for postal use but these stamps were not accepted by Russia. The Russian ministry of communication issued an order on December 6, 1994, declared that "the stamps are illegal, they are against the Russian law and should be destroyed....all rest of Tuva stamps issued in years 1994-1995 were not valid for postage and they are not related in any way to the Russian post system".
These stamps are listed by "Tuva 2000 stamp catalogue" issued by Andres Backman.
Please, don't confuse these stamps which prepared by an autonomous government with the hundreds of illegal "stamps" (actually labels) privately issued with the name of Tuva in the last 2-3 decades.

One of my favourite stamp designers is the Belgian artist and designer Jean Van Noten (1903-1982). He designed dozens of stamps for Belgium, Belgian Congo, Ruanda-Urundi and after their independence for Republic of Congo (Kinshasa), Rwanda, Burundi and Senegal. Here is one of his bird sets he designed for Republic of Congo, issued on April 20, 1963:

Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex)
Marabou stork (Leptoptilus crumeniferus)
Greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber roseus)
Congo peafowl (Afropavo congensis)
Black-casqued hornbill (Ceratogymna atrata)
African sacred ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus)
Black crowned crane (Balearica pavonina)







Jean Van Noten, the stamp designer on Maxicard with Belgian stamp issued in 1992 to commemorate him and with a commemorative postmark shows his image:

Second set of protected birds designed by Jean Van Noten was issued by the Republic of Congo several months later, on August 31, 1963:

Great white pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus)
Southern crested guineafowl (Guttera edouardi)
African openbill (Anastomus lamelligerus)
Abdim's stork (Ciconia abdimii)
Hartlaub's duck (Cairina hartlaubi)
Secretarybird (Sagittarius serpentarius)
Saddle-billed stork (Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis)







Here are the two sets together:

Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus), designed by Cyril Bouda, engraved by Bohumil Heinz, and issued by Czechoslovakia on January 25, 1938 to publicize the Sokol winter games, high Tatra mountains.

Finland 1970

Eagle is a very endangered species in Finland. It is persecuted by the reindeer herders. Herders try to anything to hamper eagles' nesting. They can make a fire at the foot of the nest tree, so the smoke usually drives the eagles away. They shoot adult birds.

Birds, issued by Cambodia on May 5, 1987 to publicize the International Stamp Exhibition "Capex '87", Toronto, Canada"

Northern carmine bee-eater (Merops rubicus)
Eurasian hoopoe (Upupa epops)
Black crowned crane (Balearica pavonina)
Barn owl (Tyto alba)
Grey-headed kingfisher (Halcyon leucocephala)
Red-whiskered bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus)
Purple heron (Ardea purpurea)

Pierre-Louis Dekeyser (1914-1984) was a French zoologist, director of the zoology department of l'Institut français d'Afrique Noire (French Institute of Black Africa) in Dakar, Senegal.

Here is a set of three stamps show illustrations of birds of Mauritania made by Dekeyser, engraved by Jean Pheulpin and issued by Mauritania on February 3, 1964:

Lichtenstein's sandgrouse (Pterocles lichtensteinii)
Long-tailed cormorant (Microcarbo africanus)
Pale chanting goshawk (Melierax canorus)

Birds, designed and engraved by Claude Durrens and issued by Mauritania on June 30, 1961:

Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus)
African Spoonbill (Platalea alba)
Slender-billed Gull (Larus genei)

Birds, designed and engraved by Pierre Béquet and issued by Ivory Coast on May 21, 1966:

Yellow-bellied Green Pigeon (Treron waalia)
Spur-winged Goose (Plectropterus gambensis)
Stone Partridge (Ptilopachus petrosus)
Forest Francolin (Francolinus lathami)

One of the best bird set in my engraved stamps collection is the one designed by Pierre Gandon and issued by Mali on February 15, 1965.

Guinea Turaco (Tauraco persa) - engraved by Pierre Gandon
Abyssinian Ground Hornbill (Bucorvus abyssinicus) - engraved by Herten (?)
Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus) - engraved by Jean Pheulpin
Goliath Heron (Ardea goliath) - engraved by Robert Cami

Beautiful indeed! Thank you for posting....

Thanks, Stamp4Life!

Carmine Bee Eater (Merops nubicus), designed by Pierrette Lambert, engraved by Pierre Gandon and issued by Niger on December 18, 1961:

Northern Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), designed by D. Zetterstrom, engraved by L. Sjooblom and issued by Sweden on March 22, 2001: