Lindsay
Here is a quick reply to a question that really needs a long answer. COG currently uses the list published in Christidis & Boles 2008. That list is now out
of date in some respects. The ‘national list’ for some purposes is accessible through the BirdLife Australia website and is known as ‘WLAB’ - now up to ‘version 2’. On the other hand many ticking observers now use one of the global lists, a popular one
being ‘eBird’. WLAB is influenced by the BirdLife International list, which is now authored jointly with the authors of the Handbook of the Birds of the World. EBird follows Clements taxonomy. You can get an overview of the different approaches if you go
to the ‘Avibase’site.
We can expect some confusion to arise from use of different lists based on different taxonomies, sometimes with different approaches to English names. Beware
of statements such as ‘Y Bird is now a different species. It has been split from X Bird’. The question is ‘split by whom’. For example the Australian ‘Collared Kingfisher’ is now a separate species (‘Torresian Kingfisher’) in eBird and IOC, but not in BLI/HBW,
Howard & Moore or WLAB.
A final point. In general ‘English (Australia)’ in eBird generally follows the WLAB English name. However that does help where there is a different taxonomy
underlying the English name. Thus you will find you need to use ‘Torresian Kingfisher’ in eBird. There is a similar problem with the koels.
g
From: Lindsay Hansch [
Sent: Monday, 17 October 2016 9:37 AM
To: COG-L
Subject: [canberrabirds] "Official" Bird List
Can anyone enlighten me? What is the "official" bird list for Australia. My query was prompted by Roger Williams' post of he recent trip to the Alice Springs area which included
a photo of a "Sandhill Grasswren". So I went looking for it and indeed found it in the Cornell Avi-base along with the "Western Grasswren" and the "Short-tailed Grasswren". Are these now official or are they simply proposed? Appreciate any advice>
