Why different lists??

[jose]

Why are there different lists Sibley and Monroe, Clements, (others I haven’t heard of? )?

[Tim Allwood]

woah Jose!

a real can of worms this one

it all comes down to what each taxonomist decides to call a species.....and this argument is as old as the hills

......and a species is anything a fully qualified taxonomist calls a species to paraphrase a famous quote.

Clements is the world listers list

Howard and Moore is a more 'scholarly' list

Sibley and Monroe is based on DNA - DNA hybridisation which gives a 'truer' representation of the phylogenetic history of birds - it's more evolutionarily correct, certainly at higher taxonomic levels. It also has most complete data on distribution. Might be worth trying to get your head around the basic order and family level classification as it appears to be the way ahead and some changes are now being included in field guides especially for example in the oriental region where Craig Robson's guide and Inskipp and Grimmett's guides both used S & M taxonomy

[Michael Frankis]

Hi Jose,

There is also the Voous list (the one used up to today in almost all European countries, devised by Professor Voous in 1978, and now the new revised Voous list, which is mostly the same as the old Voous list, but with the swans& ducks, and grouse & partridges, moved to the start of the list.

The (old) Voous list is also the one used in (most) European field guides.

Michael

[jose]

Thanks for the info guys.