Confusion with Latin Names (1 Viewer)

Hi,
I'm going through the process of writing the German names of the birds in my english speaking bird books from UK, Europe, North America and New Zealand for my German wife. I also have a German book for Central Europe, and quite often the latin names, which I thought were standard whatever the country, are sometimes different. e.g. Richard's Pipit is given as Anthus richardi in RSPB Birds of Britain a Europe, but online and in my German book, Buch der Vogelwelt, Mitteleuropa, it is listed as Anthus novaeseelandiae. This was by no means the only one.
Does anybody know the reason for the difference? I thought, because it was the scientific name, it would be the same.

Andy

I think the short answer is that it's generally the same but it changes. What's the scientific name now isn't necessarily what the scientific name has always been, so if you have one book that's older it's quite common for it to be different. As there are also ongoing taxonomic debates you may also get different scientific names depending on the taxonomy being used.

Hah!!!:-O Nothing stays the same and you're not alone in being confused Andy!

Have a look at this Opus page which might help you a bit.

BF member Tony (colonelboris) did a similar project it might be worth having a chat with him.

D

Thanks Andrew. I was using the Latin name to search for the German name and most of the time it works.
Thanks Delia, I see what you mean, well, why make it simple when horribly confusing will do?

Cheers

Andy

Hi Andy

This website below might be of use in finding the German names of birds:

http://www.knutas.com/birdsearch/

Regards

Thanks Stoggler
Its really quite amazing what is on the internet when you know where to look!

Cheers
Andy