See the note to the recent changes made to the Birdlife Australia list (WLAB). Variations in hyphening practice can be expected in English group names of different
species.
<< The 1978 recommendations strongly advocated the use of hyphens, and followed the American Ornithologists’ Union in capitalising the first letter of the second component
in species within or allied to the group, but not otherwise. Unfortunately that rule has not been universally accepted and some authorities expressly oppose it. In accordance with its own rule the IOC list (less keen on hyphens) now uses ‘Torresian
Imperial Pigeon’ (no hyphen). The BLI/HBW list, in accordance with its own recently stated rule, uses ‘Torresian Imperial-pigeon’ (no capital ‘P’) - similarly with Black-cockatoo etc.. >>
From: Martin Butterfield [
Sent: Friday, 25 August 2017 9:04 AM
To: COG List
Subject: [canberrabirds] Re: An unexpected change to eBird
It appears that eBird should be given no blame for this egregious tomfoolery. Every
international reference I have consulted (IOC on line; Avibase; Clements hard copy) has shown the name lacking a hyphen. Australian references including Birdlife Australia; the Australian Bird Guide and Australian Bird Names A complete Guide;
have all retained the correct name.
On 24 August 2017 at 18:25, Martin Butterfield <> wrote:
While filling in an on-line checklist today (using an iPhone) I found that the shortcut "sfw" no longer matched anything. It turns out the hyphen has disappeared from Fairy-wren so the IOS eBird
shortcut for Malurus cyaneus is now "suf".
Would anyone care to remind me why I hate taxonomists?
