Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology

The Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology (WFVZ) is a charitable institution based in Camarillo, California, United States.

It hosts a natural history collection specializing in eggs and nests of birds. The collection comprises ~225,000 sets of bird eggs representing approximately 4,000 species, including all orders of extant birds; ~20,000 nests; and more than 56,000 bird study skins from around the world. The Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology, a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable corporation, is both a natural history collection specializing in eggs and nests of birds from around the world, and a research and education institution dedicated to bird conservation. The Foundation's collections are among the largest in the world, and its mission is to contribute to the conservation of the world’s wild bird species through the accessibility of the collections and their data to researchers, educators, students, and the public. The WFVZ also contributes to bird conservation through bird education programs for scientific professionals and the public, and field- and collections-based bird conservation research projects and publications. The Western Foundation’s collections have contributed to multiple scientific fields (e.g., conservation, ecology, taxonomy, and toxicology). The Foundation’s egg sets have also figured prominently in studies of eggshell thinning due to contaminants (e.g., DDT and heavy metals).

It publishes a journal, the Proceedings of the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology.

Visitors can take guided tours of the collections on the last Friday of every month at 3pm, except in May, November, and December. You have to call in advance to be in the list. There are also group tours.