Birds The bird collection maintained by the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History's Zoology Section, houses almost 12,000 flat skins. The strength of the collection is the representation of Colorado species and the historical nature of the collections. A large number of these specimens were donated by Colorado College Museum in the 1960s. This material includes the collection of pioneer C. E. Aiken of Colorado Springs, and dates back to the late 1800s, documenting historical biodiversity of Colorado and Arizona. In addition to flat skins, the University of Colorado Museum has 1500+ lots of eggs and nests mainly from Colorado and parts of the Midwest. Most of these were collected in the late 1800s by Dennis Gale, G. Morrison, and others, and are a valuable resource. Lastly, the Zoology Section maintains educational collections, which are used by university classes, K-12 schools, nature centers, artists, etc.