Stamp album on Wildlife and Birds

Building a birdhouse is a great way...

Postage stamp collecting is one of the world's most popular hobby activities and has been for some time. While the uptake of electronic communication is lowering the number of stamps being sent over the world, the shear numbers of old stamps and the continuing nature of physical mail should ensure that it is also a hobby which will remain relevant for some time into the future. Stamp collectors vary from the casual collector with a small and unstudied collection, to avid and even professional collectors with dozens of German stamps books and the philately knowledge to make sense of their entire collection. The huge number of stamps that have been released means that many collectors specialise in a particular countries stamps, or those with a particular subject matter - known as topical collections.

Even for those collectors who do not seriously specialise, many stamp collectors have individual specialised people selling coins (Münzen verkaufen) books featuring different subject matters. One of the most popular subject matters for stamps is the illustration of wildlife, and especially bird life. There are many limited edition bird stamps that have been produced over the years and are the subjects of desire for bird stamp collectors everywhere. Within this field, there is even more specialisation, with Federal Duck Stamps being one notable field of study and collection.

Birds started to appear on postage stamps in 1845 in Switzerland, with the famous Basel Dove stamp. The next date of note is in 1875 when the nation of Japan produced a series of three different bird species. In the United States of America, the first dedicated bird stamp did not appear until 1911, and was a stamp of an eagle. It was even later, in fact much later in 1963 that the United Kingdom featured a bird on one of their postage stamps. Since then however, this special field of stamp production and collection has taken off, and there are now well over 10,000 stamps featuring different bird species.

While the really big money in stamps is still in areas relating to one offs and very limited editions, there is a high demand for comprehensive topical collections of a particular subject matter. Wildlife and especially birds have appeared on the front of many stamps over the years, and both the stamps themselves and memorabilia relating to them have become collectors item all over the globe.