Summarized below are known adoptions and reviews of the IOC World List, most recent ones first.

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, 3rd 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 (Gyorgy Szimuly 7/8/2010)

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.

nature data 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.

BirdStack (from David Ringer)

Birdstack is free, web-based birding software for creating lists of birds seen anywhere in the world. It uses the IOC species list as a taxonomic framework

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:

  • BOU needs to update its English names, especially for Ibis (Records Committee may well continue to use UK vernacular as well).
  • Choices are fairly limited basically only two current lists - HBW being widely used and G&W - only recently appeared so less well 'tried' but backed by IOC.
  • G&W can be up-dated at will by submissions to IOC.
  • Many people were comfortable with HBW, but it has two main drawbacks -
    • It is not dynamic in the sense that there are no plans for developing it with time. Discussions are taking place about HBW's future after the series is completed, but nothing yet emerged.
    • There is no list available. Because in the past HBW has found that advance planning of the lists of distant volumes always resulted in them having to be done again (because of changes etc) they now only plan the lists for each volume as its preparation comes up. So, there will be no final list for another 4 years or so.
  • G&W list exists.
  • In practice the two are related because Vol 1 of HBW says (p25) 'Vernacular English names have been based on those selected, on the basis of extensive international correspondence, by B.L.Monroe, and published in Sibley & Monroe 1990; these have already been chosen to act as a basis for the standardization of English nomenclature planned for the 1994 International Congress, and in future volumes the intention is to follow the official list adopted by the congress.'
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.

DK Publishers

Adopts IOC names guidelines (including capitalized bird names) as master list for Birds: The Definitive Photographic Guide (2007).

CHECKLISTS AND FIELD GUIDES

NEW!!! - 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.