Editing Help:Guideline for Bird Articles

Page Status

That's how an article about a bird species should look. If you want to see how something is coded, click on the edit tab.

On the top you may find

This article is incomplete. This article is missing one or more sections. You can help the BirdForum Opus by expanding it.

if there is some information but not in all sections

If all sections are filled, then remove the incomplete.

Then follows the name. The first line in bold is for alternative names, the second for the scientific name (with a link to the genus page), the third for possible splits, which are not yet recognized by all lists (see taxonomy section for details).

Alternative name: Black-bellied Gnatcatch-Wren; Ecuperuvian Gnatcatch-Wren

Xxencoroides pusilla

Includes Lesser Black-bellied Gnatcatch-Wren

Identification

Here you can describe the bird, pointing out the ID-features, etc.

You can also compare it with similar species. If you mention a similar species, include a link to its page. If there is any meat to such a comparison, put it under a subheading which is written as:

====Similar Species====

Distribution

Here you can give the distribution of the bird. If you mention countries or continents, put also a link to them. Try to be as exact as possible (eg. Mountains of Sumatra and Java instead of Indonesia)

Taxonomy

Here you can list subspecies (or that the species is monotypic) and make notes about taxonomy in general. If some authorities split or lump the species mention it here. Our articles are based on a consensus system, using the Howard and Moore list, the Clements list and the IOC list. If two (or more) of the lists recognize a species we follow. For the families and orders we follow Clements. If only one of the three splits, we mention it (Includes: ...) here, but we don't have an article for the split. To check out, which list accept what species we use Avibase.

For the common English name we use the same approach. If in doubt (and some cases are complicated), start a discussion thread for the species to seek advice.

If you want to give information about the genus of the bird then do so on the genus page.

Habitat

In what habitat is the bird found, also the height for mountain species.

Behaviour

Notes about breeding, feeding, migration. These can be divided by subtitles. Subtitles should be coded as in the following example:

====Breeding====

====Diet====

====Vocalisation====

Description of song or call etc Audio Clips (e.g. Bird Song) <flashmp3> Test(song).mp3</flashmp3><br /> ''[[Media:Test(song).mp3|Listen in an external program]]''

This creates an embedded audio player with a link to listen to the file in an external music player.

In Culture

Interesting cultural information. See Common Raven for an example.

References

Here you can give references of the books or websites you use for creating the article. Start every reference with a # and you will get a numbered list. If you want to give footnotes you can do so with ^{[[#References|1]]} which looks like this¹.

Guidelines for references:

1. Clements JF. 2007. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2008. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801445019
2. Gill F & Wright M. 2008. Birds of the World: Recommended English Names. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, USA. 2006. ISBN 9780691128276 Update (2008) downloaded from http://worldbirdnames.org/names.html.
3. Sinclair I & Ryan P. 2003. Birds of Africa south of the Sahara. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0620207299

{{ref}} (This is a template leading to a page with most commonly used reference sources)

External Links & Media

Linking to the Gallery

{{GSearch|Xxencoroides+pusilla}}

This link creates a gallery search. It should be already there for all species.

Linking to BirdForum TV

<br /> {{Video|Yellow_legged_Gull}}

This link leads to Birdforum TV. It's only present if there is a video.

Other external links

• Some articles have links to other sites, for example the Oriental Bird Images, the Australian Bird Image Database or others. These are used if there is no (or only poor) picture of this species in our gallery. If there are many pictures, these links should be deleted.
• Other useful links are to threads which deal with the species or with its identification.

Categories

At the end you will find the categories for the article. Every bird should be in the Category:Birds and in the Category with his genus. More categories are:

• Missing Images
• Bird Songs (if there is a song)
• Maps (if there is a map)
• Videos (if there is a video)

All categories are coded like this: [[Category:Birds]]