Welcome

 

 

The IOC World Bird List is an open access resource of the international community of ornithologists. Our primary goal is to facilitate worldwide communication in ornithology and conservation based on an up-to-date evolutionary classification of world birds and a set of English names that follow explicit guidelines for spelling and construction.

The IOC World Bird List complements three other primary world bird lists that differ slightly in their primary goals and taxonomic philosophy, i.e. The Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World, The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World, 4^th Edition, and HBW Alive/Bird Life International.

Improved alignment and consolidation of these independent taxonomic works is underway informally and was the topic of a vigorous Round Table discussion at the  2018 International Ornithological Congress in Vancouver, British Columbia.  There was broad support for consolidation and improved alignment of  global checklists of birds.  Update ( 7/31/2020).

IOC 15.2 will be our last update as the attention of the editors is now devoted to the creation and the promising success of AviList with which this version is intended to bring us into further agreement. Unlike previous releases, IOC 15.2 is a stripped-down version consisting of the Excel spreadsheets only. Due to limited resources, there will be no BOW pages nor tabular charts of the updates for this last version. We enthusiastically encourage you to adopt AviList for your own use, and to contribute your knowledge and critiques to AviList as enthusiastically, thoroughly, and supportively as you have done for the IOC-WBL. It's been our honor and pleasure to have served the ornithological community over the years.

Special thanks always to our expert advisors (left panel), to Sally Conyne and Pam Rasmussen for compiling Ranges, to Larry Master, Colin Campbell and Geoff Jones for photos, to Peter Kovalik for spreadsheet magic, to Eric Swanzey for website expertise, and to all volunteer participants. You can reach us at WorldBirdNames.2@gmail.com.

This Website provides:

• HTML lists of 11,227 species (including 164 extinct) of birds of the world (Version 15.2), with subspecies (19,797) and annotations.
• Spreadsheets in different formats, XML versions of the Master List, and Comparisons with other world lists.
• Classification of 44 Orders, 251 Families, 2389 Genera
• Updates of new species and proposed splits, taxonomic revisions, and changes of names.
• Spelling guidelines for English bird names, including  On hyphens and phylogeny (WJO 2009)

Suggested Citation:

Gill F, D Donsker & P Rasmussen  (Eds). 2026. IOC World Bird List (v15.2).