Birds of the world - Recommended english names

["Peter Ewin" <>]

Always an interesting process when someone comes up with lists.
The rules should always be consistent (ie standard use of hyphens and 
capital letters) so you don't end up with:
Australian Brushturkey
Plumed Whistling Duck
Beach Stone-curlew
Brown Cuckoo-Dove
They list "rules" and then intepret them to meet accepted norms.
They have also been inconsistent within a genus (such as revealed by the 
recent discussion on Stone-curlew v Thick-knee) which just seems crazy.
Scientific names are still the key to this sort of process and people will 
always argue over this sort of thing. On my quick look through the website I 
couldn't see what was the basis for the taxonomy they used (but more recent 
than 2003 Howard and Moore Checklist as the Kiwi taxonomy shows).
I will be very interested to see if this is what the new Christidis and 
Boles will use. The project is supposed to be for the whole world and not 
just England. I think names used locally should have been considered 
strongly. Murray Bruce and Dick Schodde were the names from Australia on the 
website.
As I say interesting but not certain how well it will catch on (I am certain 
the American's will want all "their" birds to be called Gray instead of 
Grey)
Cheers,
Peter

> From: 
> To: 
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Birds of the world - Recommended english names
> Date: Fri, 4 May 2007 09:45:49 +0800 (WST)
>
> G'day all
>
> The International Ornithological Congress has just updated its list of
> Recommended English Names.
>
> It's available as a download (Excel spreadsheet).
>
> Though some of you might be interested.
>
> http://www.worldbirdnames.org
>
> Cheers
> Steve
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