Birds described in 1872 include the Chilean flamingo, snowy egret, black-tailed crake, Cyprus warbler, Baikal bullfinch, Persian shearwater, red-fronted antpecker, Tibetan serin, Newton's parakeet and the orange fruit dove.

• Allan Octavian Hume starts the quarterly journal Stray Feathers in 1872 supported by Ferdinand Stoliczka, who was an editor for the Journal of the Asiatic Society.
• Henry Baker Tristram studies Bible localities and birds in Palestine.
• Richard Bowdler Sharpe's main work was in classifying and cataloguing the collections of the British Museum but also played a major role in acquiring private collections by persuading wealthy collectors and travellers to contribute to the museum. In 1872 the museum had 35,000 bird specimens; the collection had grown to half a million by the time of his death.

• Juan Ignacio Molina Saggio sulla Storia Naturale del Chili
• Alphonse Milne-Edwards Resume des Recherches sur les Oiseaux Fossiles. C. R. vol. lxxiv. p. 1030, and Annales des Sciences Naturelles xvi. art. 2. [A resume of the principal discoveries made since 1856 in fossil birds, which the author' has embodied in his great work on this subject, now completed]. Translation as Investigations on Fossil Birds. Annals and Magazine of Natural History ser. 4. x. pp.
• Walter Buller A History of the Birds of New Zealand. London: Van Voorst (completed 1873)
• Otto Finsch "Zur Ornithologie der Samoa-Inseln". Journal für Ornithologie 1872
• George Ernest Shelley A Handbook to the Birds of Egypt (1872)
• Carl Jakob Sundevall, 1872. Methodi naturalis avium disponendarum tentamen. Försök till fogelklassens naturenliga uppställning. Stockholm, Samson & Wallin online BHL

• Theodor von Heuglin Ornithologie von Nordost-Afrika (Ornithology of Northeast Africa) (Cassel, 1869–1875)
• John Gould The Birds of Asia 1850-83 7 vols. 530 plates, Artists: J. Gould, H. C. Richter, W. Hart and J. Wolf; Lithographers: H. C. Richter and W. Hart
• Henry Eeles Dresser and Richard Bowdler Sharpe A History of the Birds of Europe, Including all the Species Inhabiting the Western Palearctic Region.Taylor & Francis of Fleet Street, London
• The Ibis