Bird Families of the World, 17th edition (3 Viewers)

[Acanthis]

What are people's thoughts on Xenops being in its own family and 1 vs 3 families of New World Barbet (e.g. Ramphastidae, Semniornithidae, and Capitonidae)?

Olson in his New World Suboscine classification paper proposed recognizing Xenops in its own family, but the divergence time between it and other ovenbirds seems much younger in that study than other family level divergences. I know since SACC split up the barbets that the default position for them is 3 families, but the divergences between these seem much younger than between other members of Piciformes.

I keep going back and forth, and with my return from Panama soon I will need to make a decision for my own listing purposes!

A practical though unsatisfying solution is to use a single column for families, subfamilies and even some tribes. Very useful for groups like the Furnariids and Tyrannids IME.

 

[Mysticete]

I have a system where, besides common name, scientific name and date first seen/where seen, I have separate columns for Order, Family, Class, and Subfamily, with tribe where relevant also included in the subfamily category. Every family is shaded either green or blue, alternating colors, and within the family the different subfamilies alternate between 3 shades of the family color. It's more work to maintain obviously, but I enjoy checklist maintenance in a perverse manner. It does make finding birds easy though in the list.

 

[andrew147]

Have any better English names been suggested for Alcippeidae? I certainly can't come up with anything.

Some species have, at times, been referred to as nun babblers. Seems like a reasonable group name.

 

[TomDerutter]

In Dutch too (Nontimalia's), but it's also used for schoeniparus fulvetta's

 

[Acanthis]

I have a system where, besides common name, scientific name and date first seen/where seen, I have separate columns for Order, Family, Class, and Subfamily, with tribe where relevant also included in the subfamily category. Every family is shaded either green or blue, alternating colors, and within the family the different subfamilies alternate between 3 shades of the family color. It's more work to maintain obviously, but I enjoy checklist maintenance in a perverse manner. It does make finding birds easy though in the list.

The coloured banding idea is cool.

I should've mentioned. Being of a certain age I like to keep a paper copy handy which regularly gets updated, scribbled on etc.
So simplification, column number reduction for printing is a priority.

The various electronic versions are a mess to be frank, and scattered over several devices.
I really need to have a clear out.