WELCOME TO WORLDBIRDNAMES.ORG
The site supplements the book
"BIRDS OF THE WORLD Recommended English Names"
By Frank Gill And Minturn Wright
Princeton University Press, 2006
Our Goal
Our first goal on behalf of the International Ornithological Congress (IOC) is to promote the use of a standard set of the English names of the birds of the world. The names follow explicit guidelines for spelling and construction that increase clarity and consistent application.
We also provide regular updates of proposed splits and lumps and their acceptance by regional authorities. Version 1.5 is now online.
IOC World Bird Names is available through Avibase, thanks to Denis Lepage and Bird Studies Canada. The powerful Avibase database allows users to create checklists for different localities using alternative world lists.
This Website provides
- An overview of the project and its participants
- The value of standardization of English bird names
- Spelling guidelines for English bird names, including hyphens
- HTML lists of the names of the birds of the world - Version 1.5
- Downloadable files of these lists
- Excel file (XLS) - Life List format (1.3 Mb)
- Excel file (XLS) - computer format (1.3 Mb)
- CSV version for database projects (470 kb) [Note: This file is encoded as UTF-8 and will not open properly in Excel. If you plan to use Excel, please download one of the XLS files above.]
- XML version for website projects (4 Mb)
- Corrections and regular updates to the world list (Version 1.0)
- Comparison by David Matson and Dave Sargeant of the IOC vs Clements (6e) lists - download Excel file (3.3 Mb)
- Reviews and suggestions for improvement
Last Updates to some pages: March 9, 2008