3 Curious Digital Nature Collections

There is something extremely satisfying about a digital collection of natural objects. I think it takes me back to that desire to understand and catalogue the natural world. Today, of course, it’s possible to create an online collection of anything you would like. Here are three of my favourites:

Featherbase aims to catalogue bird feathers from around the world. Seeing the configuration of the colours of the different feathers showcases birds in a new light and is a valuable resource for scientists and amateurs alike.

The Mushroom Color Atlas looks at the pigments of mushrooms with a focus on dying. The extensive range of colours is eye-catching and each species comes with a series of swatches that show how the colour is represented under different conditions. For anyone who is interested in mushrooms, this provides a whole new way to think about them.

I’ve been a huge fan of artist Scott Partridge‘s work for a long time and my favourite of his projects is the Avian Vector Encyclopedia (AVE). Ave is Partridge’s attempt to create a catalogue of representative drawings of all modern bird species. Other than Partridge’s charming artwork, the wonderful thing about AVE is the ability to quickly compare morphological traits of related species from around the world. Because Partridge’s style distills each bird to it’s most distinctive features, making it easy to see the similarities and differences between the bird species.