I think this would be a useful
discussion for COG committee, etc. I am not upset, either. It is hard to write quickly and succintly without
sounding cranky :). I think we are on different wavelengths because there
are two subjects for analysis.
-birds in an area
-species status across its
distribution.
I don't have the ABR on me, but
looking at the checklist of birds for the ACT which David M mentioned (website http://canberrabirds.org.au/chklist.htm), based on the Birds of the ACT, the subject is
clearly 'an area', The ACT in this
case.
The first words (rare, common) refer to the likelihood of seeing
a species in the ACT. The second tends to refer to the behaviour of the species
eg vagrant, resident, migrant
To remove confusion it would be
useful to remove the heading of 'status' on the
website list.
Also, using 'rare, common' often confuses people because they mix
up 'threatened status' with the 'liklihood' of seeing that species in 'an area'.
It would be useful to replace this term, perhaps as suggested by Geoffrey
Dabb with
A, B, C, D, but I would replace it with likelihood of observation,
eg highly likely, likely, etc.
In the EPBC Act criteria for
nominating species I am pretty sure it says that Threatened species may be those
that occur sparsely over a large area, or MAY be common within
a very restricted area. So using an analogous example if the 'subject' is 'an
area', then beautiful firetails and ground parrots are 'common' at Barren
grounds. Because you are 'likely' to see them in this area. The species status
as a whole may still be threatened. You can use
this same argument for 'the ACT'.
As
a suggestion, To clarify the situation it may be useful to have three
columns, being Liklihood of observation in ACT or AOI (likely, not likely),
species behaviour (eg migrant, vagrant), and Species Status (eg endangered,
vulnerable).
Benj Whitworth
Ps Martin, if the subject is the
ACT or AOI rather than Canberra, then satin
flycatchers and rufous songlarks may be common in ACT but still rarely reported. Satins seem common in
Brindies, and Rufous songlarks seem common outside the suburbs. Oops, seem 'likely
observations'.
