The IOC World Bird List is an open access resource of the international community of ornithologists. Our goal is to facilitate worldwide communication in ornithology and conservation based on an up-to-date classification of world birds and a set of English names that follow explicit guidelines for spelling and construction (Gill & Wright 2006).
To keep up with the active industry of taxonomic revisions, the IOC editorial team and advisors update the web-based list quarterly. The updates include changes of recommended names or classification, additions of newly described species, corrections of nomenclature, and updates of species taxonomy.
The IOC World Bird List complements three other primary world bird lists that differ slightly in their primary goals and taxonomic philosophy, i.e. The Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World, The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World, 4th Edition, and HBW Alive/Bird Life International. Improved alignment of these independent taxonomic works is a goal of the newly structured International Ornithologists Union, including a Round Table discussion at the 2018 meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia. Click here for a working comparison of alternative world lists.
Special thanks always to our expert advisors (left panel), to Sally Conyne for compiling Ranges, to Eng-Li Green for website management, to Larry Master and Colin Campbell for photos, to Peter Kovalik for spreadsheet magic, and to all volunteer participants. We welcome your corrections and your suggestions for improvement. You can reach us at worldbirdnames@gmail.com.
ANNOUNCEMENT (Oct 21, 2017): NO 7.4! Effective today, we are shifting to a semiannual revision schedule. Our next release will be 8.1 in January 2018, followed by 8.2 in late July or early August 2018. A step towards improved alignment with the Clements/eBird world list is one of the motivations for this change. We will continue to post working revisions regularly on the Updates web pages, so please keep up the flow of comments and corrections. Thank you!
Frank Gill & David Donsker (Editors)
This Website provides:
- HTML lists of 10,694 extant species and 158 extinct species of birds of the world (Version 7.3), with subspecies (20,074) and annotations.
- Spreadsheets in different formats, XML versions of the Master List, and Comparisons with other world lists.
- Classification of 40 Orders, 238 Families (plus 2 Incertae sedis), 2297 Genera
- Updates of new species and proposed splits, taxonomic revisions, and changes of names.
- Spelling guidelines for English bird names, including On hyphens and phylogeny (WJO 2009)
Suggested Citation:
Gill, F & D Donsker (Eds). 2017. IOC World Bird List (v 7.3). doi : 10.14344/IOC.ML.7.3.