On January 20 2019 the International Ornithological Congress (IOC) released the latest version of its world bird list (V9.1):

Gill, F & D Donsker (Eds). 2019. IOC World Bird List (v 9.1). doi :  10.14344/IOC.ML.9.1.

The IOC bird list is hosted on a dedicated World Bird Names website, which provides access to the list in various different formats. The list is updated twice a year, in January and July.

The details of the changes in the v9.1 release can be found by clicking on the Updates tab on the IOC website. Here is a summary of the major amendments:

New to science

Campylopterus Hummingbirds  +1 species  Dry-forest Sabrewing

Dicrurus Drongos  +1 species  Western Square-tailed Drongo

Splits

Ninox Owls (Boobooks)  +4 species

Urochroa Hummingbirds (Hillstars)  +1 species

Automolus Ovenbirds (Foliage-gleaners)  +1 species

Myrmothera and Grallaricula Antpittas  +2

Sericornis Australasian Warblers (Scrubwrens)  +1

Laniarius Bushsrikes (Boubous)  +1

Vireo Vireos  +1

Dicrurus Drongos  +3

Calandrella Larks  +1

Phylloscopus Warblers  +1

Zosterops White-eyes  +11

Ramphocaenus Gnatcatchers (Gnatwrens)  +1

Brachypteryx Shortwings  +3

Lumps

Nothura Nothuras  -1  [Chaco Nothura]

Lanius Shrikes  -1  [Steppe Grey Shrike]

Calandrella Larks  -1  [Erlanger’s Lark]

Zosterops White-eyes  -2  [Mountain White-eye, Enganno White-eye]

Ramphocelus Tanagers  -1  [Cherrie’s Tanager]

Revision and resequencing of families

The Ovenbirds family Furnariidae has been revised and resequenced.

Part of the Australasian Warblers family Acanthizidae has been revised and resequenced.

The Laughingthrushes and Allies family Leiothrichidae has been revised and resequenced.

The Zosterops genus in Family: Zosteropidae – White-eyes has been revised and resequenced. As a result of this revision there are 9 net new species in the genus, bringing the total to 96.

In the IOC bird list there are now 10738 extant species (net +27) ascribed to 244 families.

All these changes will be reflected in the 2020 editions of the ATWB Companion Guides. These editions will be released towards the end of August 2019, after publication of the next version (v9.2) of the IOC bird list.

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Some details …

Each of the ATWB 2019 Companion Guides has a number of important features, including:

– A complete taxonomic listing of bird species

– An indication of where each bird family and species can be found in its native state

– Spotlighted species that have a restricted regional or worldwide range

However, perhaps the key feature of all eBooks in the Companion Guide series is the way you can quickly and simply access relevant, up to date online information about every featured bird species. If your reading device is connected to the internet, a single click will take you to a search results page for a species, from where you can continue to search for additional information to whatever level of detail you desire.

The ‘All the World’s Birds’ series of Companion Guides derives its taxonomy, English names and scientific names from The IOC World Bird List, an open access resource maintained by the International Ornithological Congress (IOC). The IOC bird list is hosted on a dedicated World Bird Names website, which provides access to the list in various different formats. The version of the IOC bird list used in the ‘All the World’s Birds 2019’ series of Companion Guides is Version 8.2, published June 27 2018.

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