Old Birds Never Die..show Off Your Oldest Bird Stamps..

A recent addition to my African bird album is this 1960 Great Blue Turaco (Corythaeola cristata)on a stamp from the Central African republic. These large colorful birds are found across the central regions of Africa and hunted for their meat and feathers.

I'm not sure even an ornithologist could definitely identify the bird perching on the coat-of-arms of Kishangarh State in India, but ...



it dates from 1899

Oldest stamp with a bird - Western Australia 1854 - Mute Swan. I will see if I can dig up a decent image.

Drew

Both from 1935
New Zealand kiwi



And Denmark swan, "The Ugly Duckling" from Hans C. Anderson series.

Armenian crane 1922

Air mail series
The bird as a "Flyer" by their very nature, was Austrian flight stamp characteristic marking of these stamps. Already on some value levels of air mail mark output 1922 / 1924 was a about a Falcon used as a motive.

flying buzzard.





two cormorants



Schwalben



web photo

Well my Oldest Birds would have to be my Quetzals Guatemala scott numbers 16 and 19 from 1879 and 1881 !

I have no early birds....

Here is the peace dove from Switzerland from an album I have.

Czechosovakia
Carrier Pigeon on a 1937 newspaper stamp (left) and 1920 postage (right)

Sharp quetzals, philb. Nice centering on the 19.

edit: I suppose I should contribute something more than a comment...here is a 1905 kagu from New Caledonia:

Philb: your oldest bird stamp setup is interesting to those folks who can view side by side images stereoscopically. Remember the old hand-held parlor apparatus where you would insert a dual image card of the pyramids and see it in 3D. Not everyone can do it but the centre part of your image will appear as a sort of recessed pendent for those who can. For those who can do it there will be a middle image between the two that is three-dimensional.

Now a quiz. What battery-operated toy that was given as a Christmas gift in the 1950s allowed you to see Sleeping Beauty, those Dwarf guys or Cinderella or whoever in 3D. There is no prize.

Cynical, the Viewmaster I had showed stuff in 3D but wasnt battery operated.

Actually I think it's still around somewhere in the basement.
I should look at the Western I had again. Thanks cynical for
reminding me.

Here is an old Double Eagle circa 1854.

The Double Eagle coat of arms was not only used by
the Austrian- Hungarian dual monarchy (from 1867) but also by the Hapsburgs for hundreds of years when they were rulers of the
Holy Roman Empire and between 1806 - 1867 as Emperors
of Austria.

Litho: thanks for correcting me re the battery. Am I right in thinking you had to direct it towards a light? Anyway, it was a fantastic toy.

Jamesw,
Are KiWis Birds? I can only recall eating them as "Fruits"

Definitly if you wanted to see anything.

In certain ways Viewmaster was amazing because the images just jumped out at you and it felt like you were part of the scene.
Also the fact that it was in colour compared to watching everything on B&W TV was fascinating for a kid in those days.

I remember when I got the packets ( 3 reels) of The Lone Ranger I was blown away because I had previously only watched the show in black & white.

Yes those were the days. I little thing like that made a kid happy.