The issue of birding boundaries is a fascinating issue for me when I
wear my geographer's hat. Birdwatchers like to create regional lists -
birds that they see on their property, birds that they have seen from
their property, birds that they see on other properties [eg National
Parks], birds that they see in each State [State lists] and birds that
they see within national boundaries [National lists].
I suspect there are few birdwatchers who have genuine biogeographical
lists - eg a wet tropics list, a northern savannah list, a central
deserts list etc. At the larger level, where is the biogeographical
boundary for Australian avifauna? It would certainly include much if
not all of New Guinea - possibly Wallace's Line? [Continental
Australia runs into New Guinea]
Ultimately, I guess the only regionalisation that isn't contentious
would be the world list.
Regards, Laurie.
On Sunday, August 19, 2007, at 02:00 PM, Andrew Stafford wrote:
What's happened to Mute Swan? Has this suffered the same fate as that
of the Blackbird in the 1986 edition of Peter Slater's guide, i.e.
omitted by simple oversight?! Surely not. And if it has been dumped
from the Australian list, why not Ostrich and other failed
introductions? Perhaps Peter Menkhorst could explain. Or perhaps I
missed something.
One thing I didn't miss was Peter's earlier explanation for why
Christmas and Macquarie Island aren't included in the new
Pizzey/Knight: a biogeographic rather than political view of
Australia's avifauna was taken, and if those islands were covered one
would also need to include Heard and Cocos-Keeling, resulting in a
large number of extra pages and added cost/weight to the new field
guide.
Personally I still only include birds from continental Australia on my
list - I don't even count birds from Lord Howe Island!
Andrew
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