If I remember correctly, the Index of Organism Names takes the bird names
directly from the IOC, which they also rely on for taxonomic information as
well, so that makes it far from international acceptance, although I imagine
that would follow without much of a problem. I also think that the IOC list is
an excellent tool for ornithology, but can have shortcomings in the English
names department when English-speaking countries other than the US are involved
- there are several members from Britain on the IOC, but it is unlikely that
many of the IOC names will make it into common usage in field guides in the UK
(Common Murre, Common Merganser, etc), not because of parochialism, but because
they aren't the common name that's been used for hundreds of years. You should
have seen the complaints when the recent edition of the Collins Field Guide
changed the divers to loons... I know they have a hard job keeping everyone
happy, what with spellings of words like 'grey/gray' and whet
her something is a hawk or a buzzard having been up for serious discussion in
the past and it's a really impressive project.
One advantage to having Australian authorities naming the birds here would be
that you might avoid the terminally dull 'eastern' and 'western' names for
splits and that something a little more imaginitive might happen. It's also
very sad to see wonderful birds being dumped with the over-used and not always
helpful epithet 'Eurasian', when more interesting alternatives could be used,
but that would just be my opinion. ;)
Cheers,
Tony
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