AviList: a unified global bird checklist
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s10531-025-03120-y.pdf
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Resource type
Journal article
Creator (person)
Rheindt, Frank E.
Donald, Paul F.
Donsker, David B.
Gerbracht, Jeffrey A.
Iliff, Marshall J.
Lepage, Denis
Norman, Janette A.
Rasmussen, Pamela C.
Schodde, Richard
Schulenberg, Thomas S.
Areta, Juan I.
Brammer, Frederik P.
Chesser, R. Terry
Dowsett, Robert J.
Peterson, Alan
Alstrà¶m, Per
Stervander, Martin
Remsen, J. V.
Garnett, Stephen T.
Homberger, Dominique G.
Lei, Fumin
Christidis, Les
Date published
July 5, 2025
Abstract
Universally recognized scientific names for organisms are necessary for accurate and efficient communication. Incongruence in taxonomic treatments results in situations where
one name is used for different entities or one entity is known by different names, with
negative consequences for conservation, science, trade, legislation, law enforcement, and
education, leading to discord among stakeholders and confusion among users. Within the
ornithological community taxonomic incongruence among four widely adopted global bird
checklists has led to calls for the development of a single unified global avian taxonomy
or checklist. Here we introduce AviList, a comprehensive, collaborative and evolving effort towards developing a unified global avian taxonomy, spearheaded by representatives
of most current global checklists and many major regional authorities, and supported by
the International Ornithologists’ Union (IOU), BirdLife International and the Cornell Lab
of Ornithology. AviList version 2025, the first version, was officially launched on 11 June
2025 and is available online as a comprehensive, searchable public-access database. It recognizes 11,131 bird species in 2376 genera, 252 families and 46 orders. This global effort
has resolved over 1000 species-level taxonomic incongruences among existing checklists.
With AviList’s launch, the IOC World Bird List and the Clements Checklist of Birds of the
World have ceased any independent taxonomic updates, while BirdLife International is in
the process of total alignment, leading to a harmonization in the classification underpinning a number of major bird projects, including eBird, Macaulay Library, Merlin Bird ID
and the IUCN Red List. Adoption of AviList will improve inter-operability across global
biodiversity, molecular, ecological and spatial databases (e.g. GBIF). Strong governance
of AviList will ensure it is a “living” document that is regularly updated by a global community of bird taxonomists as new scientific advances are made, with positive impacts
for conservation, academia and human society. It is hoped that AviList will support and
encourage taxonomic science by identifying areas where further research is most needed, and that it will provide a blueprint for taxonomic authorities in other organismic groups
endeavoring to achieve taxonomic harmonization.
Journal title
Biodiversity and Conservation
Volume
34
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
ISSN
0960-3115
eISSN
1572-9710
Date accepted
June 23, 2025
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In Copyright