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NATURE WORLDWIDE: GENERAL WORLD INSTITUTE FOR CONSERVATION & ENVIRONMENT, WICE
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METHODOLOGYData and nomenclature have been produced in cooperation with the University of California, Information Center for the Environment, Dept. of Environmental Science Birds
Countries and States-equivalents Further on in this website you will find an individual page for every country in the world larger than 20,000 km2 . For Russia, India, Indonesia, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, USA and Canada, we list checklists for most states/provinces/departments usually leaving out very small states. On each page you will find one or several individual tables with each species whose geographical range overlaps with the territory of that country or that has been specifically recorded for that country. The tables have been generated from huge databases that link all birds and mammals of the world with all the countries of their geographical distribution.
Sibley II for the birds When we started in 1999, we found that the Sibley and Monroe's A World Checklist of Birds was most consistent with the majority of field guides we analyzed. However, since their publication in 1993, lots of taxonomic development has taken place, and Sibley composed a new list that was more than 300 species longer, mostly by upgrading subspecies to the species level. In order to stay up to the latest developments, we now collaborate with the Information Center for the Environment, Department of Environmental Science and Policy of the University of California where Dr. Bob Meese heads the biodiversity group. Our institutions frequently exchange data and consult each other on nomenclature and recognition of species. Currently our joint worldlist list has 10017 species, which we elaborated and explained from: The updated World Checklist of birds
For nomenclature of all the birds of the world, we started out with the scientific names and English names. But we did not stop there. Our next step was to look up the official names in other languages in so far as we could find them. We now have lists for French (99%), German (89%), Spanish (65%), Portuguese (35%). You will find theses lists when you click the links to "worldlists" on the navigation table.
Literature Some of the literature consulted for both nomenclatural reference and distribution assessment (this list will be completed later on with books currently in use overseas by our database manager and with the many websites that we consulted):
In addition we have consulted many official checklists for countries and states, where available. Where possible, we have combined different sets of information to determine the presence status and abundance.
Presence status and abundance The presence status and abundance we have deducted from distribution maps and the distribution listings in the consulted literature and from official checklists. For some countries, the lists reflect potential distribution and not actual records as they were interpreted from distribution maps. In such case we have categorized them with a D. In a number of cases, the revision has been very specific, such as for countries with a national bird guide or for guides with apparent checklist precision. In such cases the species are listed with a P, for present. Some sources were precise enough to register the status of presence. For more and more countries we are finding the official national checklist on the internet or some users have sent up-to-date species lists. When we have come across a species list of a birdwatcher of birdwatchers organization, the D's have been replace by a P, or depending on the detail of the information by a more detailed presence status.
We have tried to harmonize the presence status and abundance as shown in the following table. Those are our interpretations of characterizations from the data reviewed by us. often, differences between "Migrant" and "Wintering"; Nesting and Resident; Abundant and Occasional, etc. vary per author. We have particularly struggled with the distinction between Common and Occasional. We decided to set the distinction at about a hundred species, based on several observations. First of all, many composers of checklists for countries and states, often intuitively have made a distinction for Occasional consisting of more than a handful, and certainly many less than a thousand recorded observations. Only in a few cases, did authors or commissions actually list the number of observations for Occasional. A similar observation is true for Vagrants, where we arbitrarily put set the limit under 10 observations.
The important thing is how to interpret such classification. Debatably, the Netherlands could be the most densely birded country in the world, given its number of birdwatchers per square kilometer, the small size of the country and the very active rare bird alert services. The chances that an unusual bird is observed in the Netherlands, is infinitely higher than in let's say the Republic of Chad. The probability that you may encounter a species classified as vagrant in the Netherlands is extremely low. On the other hand, a species classified as vagrant in a country in Africa because it has less than 10 observations, may actually be fairly common.
With regard to the classifications of Nesting and Resident, some observations are in place as well. Many species that spend their entire live in a country or state, can be classified as Resident. But in reality, most bird species spend the non-breeding season at a different location than their nesting season. In areas of overlap we don't notice this, because an area may still have the species around in both seasons, but they may be different individuals. From the different methods of categorization by different authors and committees, we interpreted the distinction between Resident and Nesting to our best ability. When it is market as Resident, you know that you may expect the species to be around in the country or state during the entire year and that it is nesting. When it is marked as Nesting, you know that it is nesting, but it may also be around during the non-breeding season, albeit in lower numbers.
By trying to standardize this information, no doubt errors have crept in. While dealing with so much info, we felt we needed to give you some handle on what to expect. Would it be likely that you could have seen a bird in a certain season? Or, when you go to country X, would you have a reasonable chance at seeing bird Y? We are continuously working at upgrading the information, one country at the time.
Our work has been done out of passion for conservation. Nobody pays us to do this. We want to help. If you appreciate our work, and if it has been of any use to you, PLEASE visit our site Adopt A Ranger and see how you can most effectively contribute to the conservation of nature in the world. By paying one day of the salary of a ranger, you will make a difference in conserving the lives of thousands of birds, plants and other animals.
MammalsWe have started the entry of the distribution of the mammals of the world. As a group, Mammals are not as well studied and observed as the birds. The observation of the many smaller species is more difficult and many are nocturnal. So our listings are less detailed than those of the birds. We cannot provide lists per state-equivalent, nor can we give the detail of distribution status that we are developing for the birds.
With regard to common names, not all species have an English name. A French collaborator who prefers to stay anonymous, has probably listed the most complete list of French names from a large score of different literature sources and we are proud to publish this list on his behalf. The Spanish names are still an absolute chaos, usually with each name covering a score of species. It will be a long while before a decent list can be published for even the Hispanic regions. We have not found anything in Portuguese. Grzmeck's Animal Encyclopedia (1973) lists a large score of mammal names and we are currently working at entering those data in our database. It is a good start, but it will be a while before you will find it on our web net.
LiteratureSome of the literature consulted for both nomenclatural reference and distribution assessment (this list will be completed later on with books currently in use overseas by our database manager and with the many websites that we consulted):
National parks, nature reserves and protected areasThe lists of national parks, nature reserves and protected areas appear as they are registered with the United Nations Environment Programme/World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge. Are lists are currently a bit outdates, and we are working at updating the lists. In some cases, we have more recent and accurate information, such as is the case for Honduras.
We need your help Obviously our method has been inadequate, and we invite national ornithologists or nature organizations to review the lists of their respective country and send us an alternative list consisting of real records. In such case we will adopt the database and refer to the sender of that list as the actual provider of the information. In the case that such list is a first time publication, we will duly honour that person as the actual author of that bird list. We are receiving continuous emails with most valuable information to improve our database and our website.
Moreover, we would like to list up to some 5 ornithological hotspots per country. We consider a location a hotspot, if more than one-third of the species native to that country have been sited there. If we get too many hotspots for a certain country, we will discuss with the local ornithologists, which spots we should list.
If you would like to volunteer maintaining your nation's web page, please contact us.
The Web Site BIRDLIST.ORG and its enormous database has been built by junior professionals in both developing countries and the USA, guided and supervised by senior experts of WICE, so that they can accumulate experience in birding, zoogeography and computer skills. The team includes:
Deirdre Vreugdenhil Justin Pistore Sara Sadhegi David Medina Astrid Vreugdenhil Carmen Linarte Wendy Duran Jael Marquez Daan Vreugdenhil (senior scientist)
Our website is meant to be of scientific quality, and we think that the quality of information in improving constantly. But our approach is different from what scientific institutions do. We present our information in a way that it is easily accessible to a broad public. We have applied search methods for search engines which are quite effective and as a result we get extremely high visitation rates. ;As we particularly target regular friends of nature and the international travel market, Nature World Wide enjoys far more web-traffic than regular scientific websites. As a result we reach a completely different public than the typical full-time conservation professionals. We reach you, member of the interested public.
Yet, we try to bring our information to international scientific quality. All work is performed by young biologists who work under the guidance of senior biologists of WICE. (Please read our disclaimer at the bottom of the page). Therefore our website is also very valuable for professional conservation biologists. World Wide Nature is currently elaborating a comprehensive methodology toolbox for protected areas systems, which you may expect to find by the end of 2002.
WICE will continue to upgrade and expand the information in this website with its in-house information as well as with information from you, the user. Any country web page can be adopted by a national society for the conservation of nature or birding, or by an individual birdwatcher, who can correct and maintain the contents of checklist of the birds of the country and add national ornithological hot spots. Such organisation or individual will be encouraged to provide a brief organisation profile or curriculum and an email address to be posted on the national web page to facilitate correspondence with birdwatchers interested in that country.
Please contact us at
Request for YOUR HELP on acquiring foreign language names We have all Portuguese names of the birds for Europe, Brasil and Southern Africa. Temos os nomeis de tudas as aves para Europa, Brasil e Africa do Sul. Agora procuramos os nomeis para Africa do Norte e Central e Asia. Posivelmente existem nomeis para Timor e Macão.
If there is a complete or national list in your language that you would like us to host, please send it to us and we will post it on the web.
If you can help us with any foreign names, please contact us at the e-mail address at the bottom of the page. What if you want to save the checklist of a country? It may be disappointing to you, Birdlist.org does not give out or sell its database, because we want you to actually visit our website. So, if you like the list of a country or a certain language list, the easiest way is to print it from your computer. Printing instructions are included on each national page. Keywords: checklists of birds, bird checklists, wild birds, see birds, birding sites nocturnal birds, world checklists of birds, country bird lists, national bird lists, bird names, birders, bird links, birding links, bird dictionaries, birds , wild birds, bird watching, bird watchers,
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national parks.
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WICE is a worldwide non-government non-profit organization that contributes to the conservation of nature. While it works on a many issues related to the conservation of nature and the protection of the environment, it is particularly committed to the conservation of national parks and other protected areas.
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