Birds fallen at Danish Lighthouses 1883 through 1939

This dataset presents occurrence records and notes of birds extracted from the multiple volumes of “Fuglene ved de danske Fyr 1883-1939” (i.e. “Birds at the Danish Lighthouses 1883-1939”).The dataset was created firstly by digitizing the book volumes "Fuglene ved de danske Fyr" into PDF files, OCR-ing the PDF files and finally extracting relevant data and compiling them in a database file. In the period 1883-1939, there were 45 lighthouses and lightships functioning in Denmark. This dataset contains specific occurrence records and notes on bird species that struck 2 of these, namely Lodbjerg Fyr and Hanstholm Fyr. The dataset covers records from during the nights of bird migration period from the years 1886 through 1939 (there were no occurrence records or notes on Lodbjerg Fyr and Hanstholm Fyr between 1883- 1885 and 1887-1888). A total of 1212 records were generated with 742 records from Lodbjerg Fyr and 470 records from Hanstholm Fyr. A detailed description of the sampling and digitization process may be found at: http://danbif.dk/se-eksempler/fyrfaldne-fugle/.

The two specific lighthouses Lodbjerg Fyr and Hanstholm Fyr were selected for extraction from the book volumes through a suggestion from the Thy National Park, Denmark (http://nationalparkthy.dk/). They wanted to use these specific occurrence data for an exhibition project. This databasing effort has been co-funded by Thy National Park and DanBIF. Future projects could include to extract data on more lighthouses from these digitized book volumes, all available at http://danbif.dk/se-eksempler/fyrfaldne-fugle/. The number of specimens of the fallen birds that were sent by light keepers to the Zoological Museum of Copenhagen was also recorded in this dataset. These birds were carefully preserved and catalogued by collection workers at the museum and the specimens can still be found there today. Observations on weather conditions during nights when birds were observed by light keepers were also included. Data from this dataset were extracted from “Report on Birds in Danmark, 1886” (published by Ornis) and Fuglene ved de danske Fyr volumes (published in Videnskabelige Meddelelser fra den Naturhistoriske Forening i København). Most of the book volumes were compiled by Herluf Winge (1857-1923), a Danish zoologist who studied mammalian dentition. After the early death of his brother, Oluf Winge (1855-1889), who was a leading Danish ornithologist at his time, Herluf helped to compile "Fuglene ved de danske Fyr": Birds at the Danish Lighthouses 1891-1910 and until 1912 he supplemented this with his own bird observations.