| Date | Changes |
| June 2005 | Original checklist published |
| January 2007 | Taxonomic review, additon of range and status of non passerines, species additions. Details here |
| January 2008 | Review of English names, range & status of passerines. Additions, particularly of vagrants. Details here |
| May 2009* | Summary of changes incorporated
1) It takes account of vol 13 of Handbook of the Birds of the World, the most recent updates of the Clements checklist, the revised versions of the International Ornithological Congress list and BirdLife list, the Roberts VII book (previously only the species list on the website had been seen) and, courtesy of Nigel Redman, sight of a proof copy of the new Helm guide to the birds of the Horn of Africa. 2) A review of taxonomy and scientific names, mainly in the light of these new sources and some comments from correspondents. 3) A fairly comprehensive review of English names and a brief one of French names. More details here |
Download the checklist
African Bird Club List of African Birds
Compiled by Peter Lack.
Introduction to the May 2009 version
including changes over previous versions here
Non-Passerines Download here
Passerines Download here
Introduction & Scope
The African Bird Club has, since its inception, considered publishing a
Checklist of African Birds. This has now reached fruition with the following
list. A preliminary version was put onto the Internet in August 2002 with
a request for comments and suggestions. Several people responded with a
series of very helpful notes and corrections, many of which have been incorporated.
Until the end of 2003, in an attempt to ensure that readers and others
could find out from a single widely available reference what form was
being considered, the Club rigidly followed the names used in the volumes
of
Birds of Africa, or at least gave the name used there as an alternative,
in all publications and in particular the Bulletin of the African Bird
Club. For those species not covered by Birds of Africa, eg those on the
Indian Ocean islands, it was requested that authors used a standard known
reference for these, such as Dowsett & Forbes-Watson (1993).
Taxonomy is not an exact science, views are continually changing and, to
a degree, everyone has their own views. In particular it has been recognised
for some time that some of the names and classifications in Birds of Africa (especially the earlier volumes) were not in keeping with current thinking.
The Club still considers it essential that the Bulletin, and any other
publications, should use a standard set of names and hence the reason to
produce this new list. It is hoped that others may consider this to be
a standard and also follow it. From the start of 2004 the Club will use
this list as its source.
The Club continues to monitor taxonomic changes and this list will certainly
not be the last word on the subject. It will be kept under review and
taxonomic and nomenclature changes will be made periodically as they
are thought
necessary. Additional species recorded will be added similarly. Indeed
with this latest revision, all names for which there was
disagreement between sources were reviewed specifically and in a fair
number of cases the preferred scientific name and in some cases the English
name
has been changed to reflect general current thinking (see list of changes
at 'Version
History').
The list covers all species recorded in the area covered by the African
Bird Club: mainland continental Africa and its immediate islands, and
including North Africa; the Indian Ocean islands of Seychelles, Comoros,
Madagascar
and Mascarenes; Socotra; the southern ocean islands of Amsterdam, Kerguelen,
Marion, Prince Edward, and Crozet; the islands on the mid Atlantic
Ridge (Tristan group (including Gough), Ascension, St Helena); and
the Cape Verde
Islands, Canaries, Madeira and the Azores.
The list comprises a set of preferred names (scientific, English and
French) with notes of alternative classifications and names adopted
by other texts.
New in this version, a brief
indication of Status, Habitat and Range has been included for passerines as well as non-passerines.
Contributors
I would like to thank all those people who have responded specifically to earlier versions, in particular Nik Borrow, Jon Fjeldsa, Giles Mulholland and Steve Preddy. As they and others will see, not all of their suggestions have been incorporated as they did not always agree either with each other or with me but the comments have certainly improved the accuracy and, in my opinion, usefulness of the final result.
Please note errors, and in particular additional species to be included (when accepted) to .
Peter Lack
African Bird Club
Latest page update 29th April 2009