AviList – uniting all of the world’s bird species
AviList – uniting all of the world’s bird species
AviList was published on June 11th 2025 after 4 years of work by experts in taxonomy, nomenclature, and bioinformatics and included researchers from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, American Ornithological Society, BirdLife International, International Ornithologists’ Union, and Avibase.
It 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. It provides the most current and authoritative taxonomy of birds around the world.
For further information see these links:
BirdLife International:
Cornell University
https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/avilist-unified-global-checklist/
Bird Guides summary article.
https://www.birdguides.com/news/unified-global-taxonomy-published-for-first-time/
For users of iGoTerra
https://igoterra.com/news/item/275
Although this news is likely to go down like a lead balloon with some/many in the birding community, it should at least provide a unified reference to bird taxonomy. LBC agreed to follow the British Ornithologists Union (BOU) who committed to follow IOC taxonomy from January 2017 (IOC will soon be using AviList).
At the time of writing (22nd June) it has not been announced when BOU will take the decision to update the British list in accordance with AviList. No immediate switch to AviList is envisaged by LBC but we intend to follow BOU/BBRC for our annual reports as and when they commit to this new taxonomy.
In terms of practical recording, we intend to maintain Lincolnshire records of all races that are split and lumped, ready for the time when these decisions are reversed! We strongly encourage all Lincolnshire birders to do the same.
Phil Hyde, county recorder & Phil Espin, LBC chairman.