A bird-themed stamps exhibition, showcasing over 18000 postage stamps from across the world, is enthralling the denizens of Bangalore.
Did you know that birds started appearing on stamps by 1875, when Japan issued a series of three stamps bearing stylised illustrations of the three species White wagtail, Eurasian goshawk, and Bean goose? Or that since then over 30,000 stamps have been issued by various countries worldwide? Also, that the first Indian stamp to explicitly depict a bird species as its subject was the set of four stamps depicting Red-billed Blue Magpie, Brown-fronted Woodpecker, White-browed Scimitar Babbler, and Crimson Sunbird, issued on 31 December 1968? Well, if you did not head to ‘Let’s go Birding’ at The Indian Institute of World Culture to see it all for yourself.
After the first 16 frames, the next 15,000 stamps have been divided taxonomically based on their families and species. The first set of frames is basically to give an introduction to how you can correlate the hobby into the world of birds. Here you will get to see close to about 150 plus families. Today in the thematic world, close to about 35000 bird stamps have been issued.
Must see stamps:
Falkland Islands, King Penguin.
A correspondence where they used to stick actual feathers on the letter during the 18th-19th century. It is said that the degree of the content of the letter is shown through those number of feathers.
Pigeonograms where pigeons used to carry the mail. This collection is almost 40 years and this is probably the only opportunity where one can see almost 150 families of birds.
Read the full story that first appeared in Our Bangalore dated Dec6-12, 2025 here:
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