The images depict every aspect of bird life, including courting, mating, migrating and tending young. The collection is a vital resource for scientists and also for commercial users. Nature photographer Warwick Tarboton of South Africa lives on a farm alongside the nature reserve and he lured the bird close in his garden with suet. The bird lives in a restricted range in the semi-arid area of southern Africa. The collection is used by scientists to study physical characteristics, such as feather and eye color, that are not preserved over time in the actual bird skins housed in museum specimen collections like the Academy's.
Scientists also can gain valuable data from behavior caught on film.
More than 500 photographers have contributed to the collection including Academy ornithologists. Many photographers have gone to great lengths and risked physical dangers to capture a moment of a bird's life. Wechsler has led or accompanied expeditions to remote and exotic locales including the Philippines, South America, Cuba and Cameroon. One of his most recent adventures was in fall 1997 to Borneo, where he was the photographer for a team of Malaysian and Indonesian researchers. At the time, vast stretches of forest were burning out of control due to a lack of rain and land clearing for huge palm plantations.