Lloyd,
In part I agree with what you are saying and to be completely honest I would
be happy for field guides (and checklists) to treat species from external
territories as supplemental. Reading your message I note that the only real
concern is that there is the potential for too many unnecessary species to
clutter up field guides. Just out of interest I added up how many species
have been added to the Australian list from the external territories during
the past 5 years and there are only ten and 3 of those are annual visitors
or resident.
Common Kingfisher
Asian House Martin
Western Reef Egret
Saunders's Tern
Japanese Night-Heron
Cinnamon Bittern
Red Collared-Dove
Malayan Night-Heron
Large Hawk-Cuckoo
Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler
Agreed there are a few others likely to be accepted in the not too distant
future: Common Moorhen, Dusky Warbler, Forest Wagtail, European Roller,
Japanese Sparrowhawk, Chinese Goshawk, Hodgson's Hawk-Cuckoo and Eurasian
Teal spring to mind. To say adding these is worthless and a joke is a bit
strong in my opinion. If two field guides were available one that included
the territories and one without I know which one I would prefer to buy. That
said, once more only too happy for authors to treat external territories as
supplemental.
I do know that Christmas Island and Cocos have been visited by hundreds of
birders with the last few years so the awareness within the birding
community has increased in recent times but I remain doubtful that it has
impacted local communities or conservation efforts much just yet.
Regards,
Tony
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