The first impulse that led to the establishment of the collection was the shooting of the albino common tern (Delichon urbica) by Friedrich Egbert Dalberg. He was eight years old at the time and was certainly supported in his activities by his naturalistically inclined parents, Karl Maximilian Anton Dalberg and his wife Charlotte, who were themselves more inclined towards botany.
The ornithological collection gradually grew and today it is one of the most valuable collections of stuffed birds in Bohemia and Moravia. The catalogue of this bird collection, which was written in 1923, shows that the collection contained 1,021 specimens in 433 species. Many of the birds came from the vicinity of Dačice, but the size of the collection shows that father and son Dalberg did not acquire exhibits only by hunting, but received many species from their friends and various experts. However, the collection was also supplemented by Viennese taxidermists - the Hodek brothers or Johann Dorfinger, who made most of the taxidermy mounts for the Dalbergs.
Friedrich Maria Dalberg donated the ornithological collection to the Jihlava Museum (then the Municipal Museum in Jihlava) in 1909 by. Dalberg's collection was then moved many times, but it returned to the Jihlava museum in 1973. Today, it includes 555 stuffed birds in 323 species, with most of the exhibits dating from the 19th century, and they come not only from Europe, but also from Asia Minor, North Africa and North and South America.
