RFI : Twitcher questions re NEW SPECIES FOR AUSTRALIA?

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 Dear Ian and birding-aussers,
Ian has made a good point.  The bird lists used by the American Birding Club relate to biogeographical areas rather than political areas. In these terms, Australasia includes Augtralia and nearby Islands, including Norfolk and Lord Howe, New Guinea and its islands, but it excludes Macquarie Island, which is included in the Southern Ocean biogreogrphical region; and New Zealand, which is included in the Pacific Ocean region; and Cocos-Keeling and Christmas Islands, which are included in the Indian Ocean Biogeographical region..

John Penhallurick
Canberra

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On 17/09/2009 10:37 AM Ian May wrote:

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Hi all

While counting up my Australian bird list recently some questions were
raised by a non birding friend re geographical limits that apply to
record species on the Australian national list. I showed some recent
posts about Christmas Island birds titled "New Species for Australia"
indicating that this is what we do and generally the list is developed
around political boundaries relating to the nation and its territories.

However I was unable to give easy answers to the questions.

For example, if the reason is political boundaries, why are not all New
Guinea birds recorded on the Ausie historical list? Are birds
recorded from French Polynesia in the Pacific or Reunion Island in the
Indian Ocean considered part of the French national bird list? Are
birds recorded from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean part of the UK bird
list? Outside of Australia do others follow the same rules? If so
is there any part of the world that would not qualify for the US list?
The exercise has left me wondering about the rationale of recording
national bird lists.

During the exercise some interesting geographic facts about Australia
and its territories were indicated.

The closest Australian mainland location to Christmas Island (South
Point) is North West Cape (Jabiru Point), distance 830 Nm. (1538 km.)
However the distance from Christmas Island to Java, Indonesia is only185
Nm. Cocos Island to Australia (Jabiru Point) is 1137 Nm (approx. 2100 km).

Hoping we can have a friendly discussion about this subject.

Regards


Ian May
PO Box 110
St Helens Tasmania

0428 337956


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