Alphabetical files, research files, and a scrapbook.

The alphabetical files, which were housed in two towers of filing cabinets, are largely correspondence but also some topical files.

The rest of the files in these papers were recovered from unlidded boxes on the floor of an on-site storage area at his home. The bulk of Bird's research files, which he maintained by a letter and number system, were heavily insect damaged and could not be retrieved. The research files that were able to be recovered included topical files and correspondence files that were not housed in the filing cabinets.

Correspondence, which is the bulk of both the alphabetical files and the research files, is distinctive in the Bird papers. He was a voluminous and descriptive correspondent with scientists and friends in an array of fields that interested him. He corresponded with a number of scientists in Russia since he was both fluent in that language and generous in providing translations of documents. In several of the files of correspondence with these Russian scientists, he provides an English language transcription of their resume and of their letters to him. Important correspondents include Olivier Costa de Beauregard, Alexander P. Dubrov, Andrija Puharich, Larissa Vilenskaya,and Arthur M. Young.