Adoptions & Applications

Observado.org (Hisko de Vries 2/9/2013)

Scythebill Software (Adam Winer 1/29/2013)

Scythebill is free, open-source, and cross-platform bird listing software.  Users can instantly flip back and forth between the Clements and IOC lists at any point.  It has a simple UI, but lots of features – fast data entry (“choose your own banding code”), rapid reports, EBird export (even if you use the IOC list), arbitrary location hierarchies, “sp.” and hybrid entry, and more.

Sicklebill Safaris (Phil Gregory 7/21/2012)

I have just revised our New Guinea Checklist v3.1.4 aligned with the IOC World List as previously. Two free downloads of checklists for Australia and New Guinea are available at www sicklebillsafaris.com, along with the entire back archive of the Papuan New Guinea Birdwatching Society journal Muruk. Sicklebill Safaris uses the IOC format checklist in 99% of cases.

Lifebirds Journal  (Jim George 7/13/2012)

Lifebirds Journal is an app  by Eucled Design available from the iTunes Store for recording bird sightings on the iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. It currently uses version 3.1 of the IOC World Bird List for its species taxonomy.  Lifebirds Journal provides birders with a tool for recording, sharing, and interacting with sighting data while in the field. The app was designed to minimize the text input required to enter a wide array of detailed sighting information, including location info (locale, city, state, country, region and GPS coordinates), subspecies, date/time, detailed bird counts by age and sex, additional sighting notes, and voice memos.

Lists of species seen can be generated by any combination of start and end date, sighting location, and species family, allowing users to generate lists as specific or general as desired. Lists can be viewed and organized within the application, or exported via email in spreadsheet format and saved on a home computer. The app also allows users to build and save custom checklists.

Lifebirds Journal provides users with flexible search functionality for easily locating specific birds. Searches can be restricted to one of ten world regions; can be performed using any part of the English or scientific name; can find the IOC name even when an alternative English names is entered; and, in the AOU region, can use 4-letter alpha codes. For the U.S. and Canada, an option is given to display the English name used in North American field guides when it differs from the IOC name.

Check List of Birds in South Africa   (Chris Lotz 6/24/2012)

“The official South African bird list (available as a printed booklet and in pdf and excel format) is updated annually after thorough input during the course of each year from a large bird list committee. The list was started 3 years ago and the updated version appears in March every year (the 3rd revision appeared in March 2012).

The basic rules the committee uses to update the list each year are:
1. We follow the IOC (worldbirdnames.org) to a large extent as we see this list as the most authoritative world list available. Specifically:

2. We follow the IOC (worldbirdnames.org) as far as taxonomy (e.g. scientific names, taxonomic order, splits and lumps), is concerned.

3. Our committee votes on any changes to Common Names the IOC proposes. In some instances, the voting process means we accept the IOC change. In other cases it means we retain our existing name. In the latter case, we recommend to the IOC why we think the original name was better, and our hope is that the IOC would revert to the original name, in these instances, especially if they can agree to our reasoning. Generally, the Common Names on the official South African list show few discrepancies when compared to the IOC list.

Xannio WorldBirdList   (Steve Chalmers 6/7/2012)

This Windows XP software makes it easy for you to maintain just one list – your life list – by combining the IOC and Clements’ taxonomic lists into an easy-to-use application that shows the two taxonomies side-by-side – at subspecies level. As there is only one list to maintain it will be especially useful to the inveterate non-lister, while for anyone keen on avian taxonomy, it helps you see where the two taxonomies agree and, more importantly, disagree.”

Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Bridge keyword files (Graham Watson, 4/2012

My name is Graham Watson and I wish to thank you all for supplying the IOC Names Files for amateur photographers who have more than a passing interest in twitching.  I wish to inform you that I have used your Names Files to create Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Bridge keyword files to be used by bird photographers to correctly and consistently metadata/tag/keyword their photos.  I provide these free of charge to anyone on the internet and believe, given a link on your website, they could be used in a more direct and positive manner for others interested in the world of bird photography.  The link to my website is http://grahamwatson.net/ and will find the files in question under the Tools button.  Please take a look as I truly believe these will be of great help to users of your website.  Mark Wilson from http://www.rusticolus.co.uk (LR Nature Data plugin on your web site) has keywords lists on his site as well and we are in touch with each other regarding the keywords lists.  Please feel free to pass on any comments or criticisms you may have.

Yours in birds,
GrahamW

The OSME Region List of Bird Taxa (ORL) (Richard Porter, Simon Aspinall, Steve Preddy & Mike Blair 2/2011)

The ORL (c1060  taxa) and a map of the OSME Region are available on www.osme.org. We adhere closely to IOC updates.  The ORL Listmaster (MB) is at orl@osme.org.  The first draft of the ORL utilised the final 2005 draft of the IOC list  of English names. It was formally adopted by the Council of the Ornithological  Society of the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia (OSME) shortly  afterwards. The ORL also adopted the taxonomy of Howard and Moore, 3^rd edition from the outset. OSME Council encourages countries within the OSME  Region to adopt ORL nomenclature and taxonomy, but we will cross-refer when any  country adopts a different approach. The ORL approach has helped produce  country checklists and national and regional field guides, some in the national  language of the country concerned.

Birds of Slovakia (Peter Kovalik 12/2010)

A checklist of birds of Slovakia was published in the SOS/BirdLife  Slovakia’s journal Tichodroma in December 2010. The checklist is based  on the decisions of the Rarities Committee of the SOS/BirdLife Slovakia  and on the relevant published sources. It conveys also current knowledge on bird systematics and taxonomy. This list strictly followed IOC World Bird List for scientific names and taxonomic sequence.

Bubo Listing (Andy Musgrove, Mike Prince 7/30/2010)

We have just launched the IOC World List on BUBO Listing. This has been requested by many BUBO Listers and we   feel it is likely to be adopted by most as their preferred world listing   authority. We have also included species distribution details for all   species to make it easier to understand the taxonomic differences   between this and the Clements World List.

Worldwaders

WorldWaders, a new global initiative for shorebird conservation, is   exclusively using the IOC nomenclature for their projects. Naming and   order is as IOC suggests and changes in taxonomy is updated at the time   of announcement of new version available on the IOC website.

The CBR Checklist of Birds of China v1.0.1 (2010) (Wei Qian)

A new Checklist of Birds of China is available online on 1 March 2010.  Editing by the editors of China Bird Report book series, this list  contains 1408 species that has occured in China. All species are given  Scientific, English and Chinese names. It is the first checklist which  adopts the framework of the IOC World Checklist and absorbs several  recent splits, new records and taxonomic changes, which reflects the  recent phylogenetic and taxonomic works on Chinese birds. Appendix with  species lists that distributes in Southern Tibet, Tianshan and Nansha  Archipelagos are also available. This checklist will also play as the  framework for the future publication of China Bird Report series.  Comments and remarks are welcome.

Biological Inventories of the World’s Protected Areas (Robert Meese 2/9/2010)

I have developed and am continuing to maintain a database containing  documented, taxonomically harmonized biological inventories of the  world’s protected areas.Until this month, and going back to 1997, I’d been using a derivative  of Charles Sibley’s Birds of the World, version 2.6, with updates from  the AOU and Alan Peterson’s Zoonomen site (Charles Sibley and Burt  Monroe were strong supporters of my work).I have for the past several weeks been transitioning from our former  bird nomenclator to IOC 2.3 and have today completed this task. Thus, with the next web update, scheduled for later this month, we will be  using names for the bird inventories that adhere to IOC v. 2.3 and will  be citing your website as the naming source.These databases currently report about 75% of the world’s bird species,  and are we are continuing, as time permits, to expand and add data. If you or anyone associated with your effort has data that they would like  to contribute, we’d be delighted to add these, with full professional  credit given in citations that appear above the inventories. Many thanks for making this naming standard freely available and thus  providing a taxonomic resource that is current, authoritative, and  well-documented.  I will be turning to your website often in the future.

LaBORINg Project, an Online Specimens Catalog with Specimens based in ringing birds (Manuel Andres-Moreno, 12/30/2009)

” LaBORINg is a open project to all ringers/banders from western Palearctic. The Taxonomy and Nomenclature we have adopted is based on the International Ornithological Congress (IOC) list.” http://www.wpbirds.net/

Wikipedia (from Kim van der Linde,  9/1/2009)

” The wikiproject birds at the English Wikipedia has adopted the IOC list now as the defacto standard. We are currently implementing the names, and soon we should have most names in line with the IOC with one exception so far: African Grey Parrot instead of Grey Parrot,   because of the sheer wide use of that name. Maybe something for you   guys to consider?”

Wildlife Recorder (from Jack Levene, 3/11/2009)

“Wildlife Computing is happy to announce that the “IOC World List” can now be used with our Wildlife Recorder software package. The IOC World List can be used in addition to the taxonomies previously provided with Wildlife Recorder. The user can instantly change between taxonomies, including the IOC list, to determine   their life list.”

Birds of India

“The list below has been compiled essentially from information presented by Gill, F., Wright, M. & Donsker, D. as available at WORLDBIRDNAMES.ORG  (see references 1 & 2 below). Birdwatchers in India generally use Grimmett & Inskipp’s ‘Birds of the Indian Subcontinent’ (Ref 3 below) and are familiar with the Common Names and sequence used in that book. This book primarily follows the taxonomy and nomenclature laid out in Inskipp, Tim; Lindsey, Nigel &   Duckworth, William’s ‘An Annotated Checklist of the Birds of the Oriental   Region’.”

Printable World Checklists

This website is based on  the IOC World List for English names, and on Clements 6 (2007 + all updates) for taxonomic sequence and scientific names

Wikiproject Birds

The main page indicates that the de facto standard for bird names is Handbook of Birds of the World (HBW). I am sure it was the most up to date reference at the time of   publication, but in the end, it is static snapshot of birdnames from before the time of publication. Unfortunately, the world is dynamic, and that has been   recognized by the International Ornithological Congress (IOC), who for that   reason maintains a up to date list of both scientific and common names. This list is updated regularly based on the newest insights, and therefore much more up to date than HBW. I therefore propose that this WikiProject changes its de facto standard to the IOC World Bird List for both common and latin names.   — Kim van der Linde at venus 12:52, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Tree of Life – Aves, Neornithes

IOC list is the working species framework for tree construction.

Naturedata LR

Naturdata LR makes use of Phil Harvey’s excellent ExifTool. The plug-in also makes use of the International Ornithological Congress World Bird List and published bird   lists by the BOU and AOU.

Avibase

The IOC list of world bird species is now 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.

BirdJournal (from Justin Caldicott)

I am currently developing a very exciting new personal bird recording software,   called Bird Journal.  Please see www.birdjournal.net , for an insight into the software. If you have the time to help us with the questionnaire, that would be great too. I would like to use the IOC World Bird Names data   within this software.  From what I have read on your website, copyright has been waived to accelerate adoption.  But I would like to confirm that it would be ok   for us to use the data.  We would be re-distributing the data, stored in our own   database format, to be read only by our software.  Obviously we would make the   source of the data clear, and we would issue updates, as the data   changes.

Global Raptor Information Network (GRIN) (from Lloyd Kiff)

You are probably aware of the website project, the Global Raptor Information   Network (”GRIN”) (www.globalraptors.org), that I   maintain. I wanted to let you know that I am following your list in most   details, and I commend you and your co-author for your efforts to achieve   standardization in English vernacular names. I have felt that this was a  hopeless quest, but I concede that you have made it seem less  hopeless. I have tried hard to include   information on the most recent molecular phylogenetic studies on raptors in the   taxonomic sections of the GRIN species accounts, and I wanted to call this to   your attention on the chance that I have cited some papers there that might not   have come to your attention. In addition, the searchable bibliography on GRIN   contains over 38,000 records on diurnal raptors by now, and that, too, might be   of some use to you

EDITORIAL POLICY

British Ornithologists’ Union (from Chris Perrins)

The BOU decided to effectively go with G&W [in Ibis] except for the  ‘after-hyphen’ Caps. There seems to have been a lack of understanding  of this – partly of course stemming from not reading the rules! But I  do think we under-estimated the complexity of this esp. for the  non-English speaker.The reasons for this decision are as follows:

Wilson Journal of Ornithology

The Editor of WJO, Clait Braun, adopted as policy for that journal  the IOC recommended names for bird species outside of North and Middle  America, the province of the AOU Checklist Committee (NACC).

Handbook of the Birds of the World (from Josep del Hoyo and Andy Elliott, editors)

We will probably follow the ‘content’ of the names in 99-100% of the cases, but will maintain our own format.We are now completing Volume 12 of the 16 HBW volume series and it does  not seem to us logical or helpful to change the structural components  that have been used throughout the series to date. If this IOC list of  English names had been available at the beginning of the series, we  would have had a much stronger tendency towards following it throughout  the series.Our intention for the remainder of the HBW series is, in principle, to  aim to stick to what we might call the ‘substance’ of their names,  except for odd species for which we have strong feelings that their  selected name is not the most appropriate – but at this stage we should  stress that perhaps this will never occur! They themselves left the  door open to future modifications, so we won’t feel that there is  anything greatly wrong in the odd disagreement, should this occur.As regards compound names, our intention is pretty much the same: if  they use two words, one word or hyphenation, we shall aim to follow  them unless we disagree strongly. At this stage we are not yet sure how  much we may differ on this score.In hyphenated names we always follow the hyphen with a small letter,  rather than the American system that they have (perhaps not  surprisingly) adopted. This was, of course, a decision taken right at  the start of the series, and to be honest if we had to decide ourselves  right now we still prefer it. It seems to us that the system of using a  post-hyphenation capital initial letter when the second name refers to  the family in which the species belongs is rather a complicated system  for vernacular names, which should we believe aim to be as simple as  possible for the non-specialist to be able to follow and use easily and  correctly. Thus, we shall have “Chestnut-fronted Shrike-babbler” rather  than “Chestnut-fronted Shrike-Babbler”. Also in this case there seems  to be considerable doubt as to whether or not Pteruthius are true  babblers anyway.

CHECKLISTS AND FIELD GUIDES

FIELD GUIDE TO THE SONGBIRDS OF SOUTH AMERICA (UTexas Press, 2009) (from ROBERT Ridgely)

We  follow the IOC List. A couple of quibbles, but we are following it in  by far the majority of cases.

Ornitholidays (from Nigel Jones)

We are usng the IOC names as the basis for our brochure

Rockjumper Birding Tours

“The Taxonomy and Nomenclature we have adopted is based on the International Ornithological   Congress (IOC) list as published by Gill & Wright and accepted by almost   all ornithological authorities.”

Birding Africa (from Deirdre  Vrancken)

Thank you very much for your great website with the IOC World Bird   List! Birding Africa now uses the International Ornithological Congress (IOC)   bird names to keep their guides and tour participants up to date with modern   nomenclature and systematics.

African Bird Club (Forwarded by D. B. Donsker)

The African Bird Club informing has completely revised their African  Bird List. As part of the update, they have referenced the IOC List and  names. Here’s a blurb from their Introduction to the revised list:Changes include:

• Updates to Clements’s checklist dated July and December  2005. (It is noted that a 7th edition of this checklist is due for  publication in January 2007 and will be incorporated as appropriate in  due course.)
• Updates to Howard & Moore’s checklist dated 31 January 2006 at Howard & Moore update (PDF)
• Handbook of Birds of the World volumes 10 and 11 (to end of warblers and flycatchers).
• The  IOC list of English Bird Names has been incorporated. Also the single  asterisk following a secondary English name now indicates that this is  the IOC preferred name (previously the asterisk indicated the name used  by the Sinclair & Ryan fieldguide).

BIRDS OF NORTHERN SOUTH AMERICA Vol 1 (2006), by R. Restall, C.Rodner, & N, Lentino

“We have chosen to follow ‘Howard and Moore’ (Dickinson 2003) and the new IOC-endorsed list of recommended English names (Gill and Wright 2006) with regard to the hyphenation of English names. Both works explain the rationale for their use of hyphens, but generally they take a minimalist approach, avoiding hyphens unless it is considered essential to use them.”

AOU Checklist of North American Birds

The NACC invited the IOC North America subcommittee to submit proposals  for change. The first proposal submitted April 2007 invited the NACC to  align their guidelines for spelling and use of compound names (see 6th  edition of the AOU Checklist of North American birds) with those  recommended by the IOC. They rejected this proposal (see Auk 124:1472), but will review proposals on a species by species basis.  This decision separates the AOU from other leading  ornithological institutions and publishers (BOU, WOS, DOS, HBW, DK, ToL  project etc.).

Birds of Africa: South of the Sahara (From Sinclair and Ryan’s  introduction, see also Kaestner review in Birding, 39 [3], page 86)

“The decision on a single set of common names was taken out of our  hands to some extent by the International Congress….. which after  much heated debate came up with the list we use here. We do not  personally like all the choices made, but in the interests of attaining  a unifed list we have adopted them. However, we retain major synonyms  in parentheses.”

BirdLife International  

BLI released v1) of their world species list for  comments. It is presented as a well-annotated Excel spreadsheet  available for download at <http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/downloads/BirdLife_Checklist_Version_0.xls>, supplemented by additional information on the web at <http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/taxonomy.html>. Recommended IOC names, when different, are included in a column of alternative names.  In their own words:”For each species the common name officially adopted by BirdLife is  taken from the main source used to determine the scientific name.  Additional common names from the other sources are also stored, as are  accented names. It should be noted that this work was undertaken  parallel to that carried out by the IOC and recently published by Gill  and Wright (2006). We have had not yet had time to consider their  findings and proposals but we have also stored the common names from  Gill and Wright (2006) where scientific names match electronically  (c.90% taxa). In order to maintain global consistency, additional rules  have been applied to the name officially adopted by BirdLife (but not  to common names of taxa that are Under Review).”

Checklist of the Birds of Switzerland (Der Ornithologische Beobachter 103: 271-294 (2006)

This multilingual work adopts IOC English names

Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World , Sixth Edition 2007

David O. Matson and Dave Sargeant have compiled a master Excel file  (downloadable from the home page) that compares the IOC species list (1.7) with that in Clements (6e), and  generously allowed us to make this work available through this website.  Please note that this copyrighted file is not available for commercial  use.

Danish Ornithological Society/BirdLife Denmark

The Danish Ornithological Society’s list of Danish names for all  birds of the world follows the IOC World List. The Danish names are  published in the new book “Danske navne pa alverdens Fugle (2008)” and  on the website of the socieety.

German bird list (from Peter Barthel)

The list of German birds with the new English IOC names for the  participants of the IOC is finished now. Compared to the original  version, only 47 names had to be changed, and most of them are much  better now.There are changes I liked very much, like e.g. Short-toed Snake Eagle,  Rosy Starling and Long-tailed Bushtit. On the other hand, Pomarine Skua  is not logical, and Great Black-headed Gull is much longer than  Pallas’s Gull, invites confusion with Great Black-backed Gull and makes  a modifier necessary for the Common Black-headed Gull, which will never  be used because the name of this really common bird is far too long  now. [NOTE; THESE NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED!]And I’m afraid that most Europeans are not really happy with the  Kurrichane Buttonquail. But that’s what happens in democratic  committees with members from several continents ..

Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World (from E.C. Dickinson, Ed.)

Thank you for keeping me in the loop. I have forwarded your e-mail to  all members of the Howard & Moore who affect decisions on  vernacular names and have reminded them that I have told you that we  will work towards a commonality. Realistically I do not expect this  will be achieved in one step or even two, but with goodwill we can  eventually get there.