Auckland Museum's outstanding land vertebrates collection comprises over 15,000 bird specimens, 3,800 amphibians and reptiles and 1,600 land mammals.
These specimens are primarily from northern New Zealand, but there is also a significant amount of material from elsewhere in the country, from islands of the south-west Pacific, from Australia and from around the world. The collection is particularly strong in kiwis and moas, oceanic seabirds, penguins, cormorants, ducks, waders and allies (Charadriiformes).