Science

The publication of AviList today means that, for the first time ever, there is a unified global checklist of all bird species found on planet Earth.

AviList is a brand-new, complete global checklist of species and taxonomy. Containing 11,131 species, 19,879 subspecies, 2,376 genera, 252 families and 46 orders, it brings together the latest global thinking on what constitutes a species and shakes up our understanding of the avian world.

Until now, ornithologists, conservationists and birders have used a selection of global checklists, each with its own reasoning on what constitutes a specific species of bird. AviList’s unified view has been developed by the Working Group on Avian Checklists, containing representatives from BirdLife International, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the American Ornithological Society, the International Ornithologists’ Union IOU) and Avibase. The new checklist will replace the International Ornithological Congress and Clements lists, and will be updated annually.