Frank B. Smithe, an amateur ornithologist credited with setting color standards for the science. He was 96 years old and lived in Douglaston, Queens.
Mr. Smithe, who was also an amateur archeologist, had close ties with the American Museum of Natural History and the museums of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and Tikal, Guatemala. He first visited the lowland jungles of Guatemala in the early 1950's, where his interest in birds flourished.
In 1966 his book, ''The Birds of Tikal,'' the first to classify birds in Guatemala, was published by the National Museum Press. He later wrote a ornithology color guide for naturalists.
Mr. Smithe was a graduate of the Columbia University School of Engineering. From 1914 until he retired in 1963, he worked for his family's business, the F. L. Smithe Machine Company, a manufacturer of envelopes.
He is survived by a son, Eliot S., of Manhattan; a sister, Rita Sengstaken, of Hollidaysburg, Pa.; three granddaughters, and five great-grandchildren.