John and all,
It was probably a comment I made about
Christidis and Boles (C&B) some time back that John Layton is referring to.
I was not denigrating C&B, rather I was pointing out that taxonomic lists
such as C&B, the CSIRO book that I co-authored and other such lists that
are, given the constant and ever changing advances in research, virtually out
of date the day they are published. The original C&B was published in 1994
and not revised until 2008. When it will be revised again is anyone’s
guess. The same happened with the two editions of the CSIRO list that I was
involved with. In the meantime advances in DNA etc have led to splitting, and
lumping, of species. Unless you are following the scientific journals, and this
could be from anywhere in the world, you will not know what is happening in the
bird world.
The one list that I am aware of that does
try and keep up to date with WORLD taxonomy is that put out by the IOC titled
“Birds of the World: Recommended English Names” – if you want
a copy, it is downloadable as an Excel spreadsheet. All you need to do is Google
it and select what you want. It is usually updated about 3 or 4 times a year.
Currently they are up to version 2.5 (July 2010) and are working on a draft of
version 2.6. In each version they list what is currently being considered for
inclusion and what potentially will be deleted, among other things. This is the
list I personally use for my list keeping, including for Australia. It
has some species that are not recognised in C&B but that is taxonomy at
work. Taxonomists will never agree on all species. There is a book version available
that as far as I am aware records subspecies, something that I did with the
CSIRO list for Australia
and its territories, but C&B does not include. It is often these subspecies
that are elevated to full specific status and if you know that you have seen
them, can give you an “armchair“ tick.
I know from a birding friend in Sweden that the
majority of Swedes use the Clements checklist of world birds; it also includes
subspecies names in its book form. This again is different to the IOC list. I
am sure there are other lists out there that people use.
What it all boils down to is personal
choice – use whatever you think suits your needs.
Mark
From:
John Layton [
Sent: Wednesday, 11 August 2010
12:48 PM
To: Canberra Birds
Subject: [canberrabirds] Stockdill Drive
Stockdill Drive, Holt, often a bidrful area. Last Friday
afternoon I pulled off the road about a kilometre east of the Shepherds Lookout
burnout to watch about 10-12 Red Wattlebirds moving among the blossoms of a Red
Stringybark that’s held a good flush of blossom for a couple of weeks.
Wattlebirds very active but not calling. After a while I sat back in the sun
and opened a good book. Suddenly I looked up – birder’s 6th
sense – and glimpsed a white bird flashing across my field of view. A
minute later it returned – a Black-shouldered Kite – and hovered
over the paddock 30 metres away, a moment later it moved closer, hovering 15
metres away until it moved to just 10 metres from the car and hovered briefly
before flying away in the general direction of Shepherds Lookout.
At 16:00 yesterday I drove along Stockdill in the rainy gloom and saw
three Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos perched in a small, dead acacia at the
roadside. Returning 30 minutes later I noticed they were still there
Several weeks ago mention was made that Christidis and Boles was out of
date. Not surprising, But what is the informed birder-around-town referring to
now that C & B is yesterday’s news?
John Layton.
