If your data was affected by any splits or lumps, you will have a notification. For help with the upgrade process, check the taxonomic updates help page and the taxonomic updates screencast.

This update introduced a handful of splits and English name changes. There were significant changes to higher-level taxonomy, including (1) recognition of Suliformes, Capitonidae, Semnornithidae, Macrosphenidae and Pnoepygidae, (2) reclassification of core babbler taxa into five families (Timaliidae, Pellorneidae, Leiothrichidae, Sylviidae, Zosteropidae — read more), and (3) 92 changes of genus.

These and other changes can be perused from the IOC update pages.

If your data was affected by any splits or lumps, you will have a notification. For help with the upgrade process, check the taxonomic updates help page and the taxonomic updates screencast.

In this update, there were changes to 19 English names, including consensus recommendations of Guy Dutson et al. for birds of Melanesian islands. There were taxonomic changes among the pittas, Thryothorus wrens, and parrotbills. Also in this update is a revised sequence of species of Cinclodes that aligns with SACC sequence to reflect current genetic information.

Notable splits include Common Moorhen (Old World and New World forms; New World species called “Common Gallinule”), Winter Wren (following recent American Ornithologists’ Union split), Blue-crowned Motmot complex, and Western Scrub Jay (into Pacific and interior forms).

These and other changes can be perused from the IOC update pages.

If your data was affected by any splits or lumps, you will have a notification. For help with the upgrade process, check the taxonomic updates help page and the taxonomic updates screencast.

Highlights for North American birders include the re-splitting of Mexican Duck (Anas diazi) from Mallard. See the IOC comments and my blog post for more details.

And another biggie is the re-splitting of Yellow-rumped Warbler into the eastern Myrtle Warbler, the western Audubon’s Warbler, and two non-migratory species in Mexico and Guatemala. Details in the IOC notes.

Other splits abound and can be perused from the IOC update pages, along with all the other changes. The IOC is currently changing many English names to better conform with tradition and regional authorities, and shuffling of families and genera continues as scientific data accumulates. Highlights and details are on the IOC site, as mentioned above.

Happy birding, researching, and possibly even armchair ticking!

Highlights include addition of 13 species, 108 English name changes primarily for endemic and near-endemic birds of New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago, and resequencing of New World trogons.

You can explore further at IOC World Bird List Updates.

Version 2.1 contains 10,340 species classified in 39 orders, 224 families and 2198 genera. Highlights include addition of 14 species, including eight albatross species, and 19 English name changes including the Madeiracrest to Madeira Firecrest and Pediunker to Grey Petrel.

You can explore further at WorldBirdNames.org.

Version 2.0 contains 10,331 species classified in 42 orders, 226 families and 2,199 genera. This is a major update that includes revisions of the family classification as well as species taxonomy. You may notice significant revisions in orders and families based on the results of important genetic studies. Our assumptions and hypotheses about avian systematics are undergoing major revisions as more information becomes available. Among other changes, the list now includes more than 200 recently split and newly described species, revisions of the Old World Warbler families, and a resequencing of suboscine families to align with South American Checklist Committee classification.

You can explore further at WorldBirdNames.org.

Birdstack’s database has just been upgraded to conform with version 1.7 of the IOC’s World Bird Names project.

The IOC announced:

Included in the updates of this working list of 10,354 species are

• Additions of one newly discovered species (Olive-backed Forest Robin), and three splits each of Pyrrhura parakeets and Zimmerius tyrannulets
• Removal of all “species” previously marked for Deletion (DEL).
• Adjustments or changes of 19 English names, including restoration of Long-tailed Tit.
• Generic revisions including broad reclassification of gulls and terns as well as AOU’s separation of two species of Scytalopus tapaculos to a new genus Eleoscytalopus, assignments of Buarremon and Lysurus brush finches to Arremon, Darwin’s Rhea from Pterocnemia to Rhea, Slender-billed Kite from Rostrhamus to monotypic Helicolestes, Anianiau from Hemignathus to monotypic Magumma, and most Pionopsitta parrots to Pyrilia.
• Resequencing of Donacobius to Old World warblers (Sylviidae), and of Sapayoa to broadbills (Eurylaimidae) in accord with DNA revelations.

Changes to English names, binomials, family assignments, and the like have been made automatically in the database. If you would like more information about the changes that have taken place, you can peruse the World Birds Names updates pages.

Other types of changes, though, will require your input. Some of you will see a pending taxonomic updates icon in the notification area near the top of every page. When you click this icon, you will see a list of the observations that need to be reassigned after splits or lumps.

There’s a video tutorial available if you need help: taxonomic updates screencast.

The IOC announced: “Major features include alignments with Rasmussen and Anderton (2005) for the avifauna of South Asia, BirdLife World List International Version 1.0, and Christidis and Boles (2008) for the Australian avifauna.

“This update also includes taxonomic updates published or identified in peer reviewed journals since the posting of Version 1.5, upgrades of seabird taxonomy, and revisions of Ranges and English names, including Great Black-headed Gull (=Pallas’s Gull), Roughleg (=Rough-legged Buzzard), and others.”

Changes to English names, binomials, family assignments, and the like have been made automatically in the database. If you would like more information about the changes that have taken place, you can peruse the World Birds Names updates pages.

Other types of changes, though, will require your input. Most of you will see a pending taxonomic updates box in the right sidebar when you log into your Birdstack account. When you follow this link, you will see a list of the observations that need to be reassigned to newly created species.

Here’s a video that explains the process: taxonomic updates screencast (link updated 19 October 2008).

Because this is the first time we’ve gone through an update like this, please let us know how it goes for you as you work through the changes. Also, we’d love to see you talking with each other on the forums, offering advice and discussing the updates that have occurred.

Here’s some final information about the IOC list and the direction it’s headed. If you look carefully at the update pages on the World Bird Names web pages, you will see that there are many “proposed splits” included in the list, and that there are lumps that are pending but haven’t actually occurred.

The organizers of the IOC list are treating it as a work in progress — from my perspective a very reasonable way to proceed given the massive changes we are seeing in all levels of bird taxonomy and nomenclature. Here are some comments I received from Dr. Frank Gill:

“We opted to use this category [proposed splits] to be as current as possible with the literature, but with the recognition that some of them might not be accepted by leading authorities or us. So we post them as a first step, with a window of opportunity for feedback and review before conversion to ‘actual splits.’ We suspect that 90% or so will convert in 6 months’ time.

“More specifically, we view these as editorial steps towards the release of version 2.0 in January 2009, for which we will evaluate the decisions by BirdLife, AOU, etc. [...]

“[...] Our philosophy is that distinct allopatric populations should be recognized as species until it is proven that they will interbreed freely with another such population, and judged conspecific. [...]”

There are lots more changes ahead, but don’t fear. Rejoice! Birdstack is here to help.