Browse Avibase Taxonomic Concepts

Central to Avibase is the notion of taxonomic concepts. Avibase is unique in having developped a labelling system that allows recognizing distinct taxonomic concepts that are otherwise normally described with the same scientific name. Avibase aims to describe and organize all avian taxonomic concepts published in major authorities (particularly checklists, such as Howard & Moore, Peters, Clements or the A.O.U.) for the last 125 years or more. Each Avibase unique concept is mapped to usage in more than 175 different taxonomic authorities, which allows to easily resolve the biological meaning of the scientific names used among authorities. In addition, Avibase concepts are also linked to each other in taxon trees, which can serve several purposes in addition to express relationships (e.g. automated taxonomic mapping and validation).

For more details on how taxonomic concepts are used within Avibase, please refer to this paper published in ZooKeys: Lepage D, Vaidya G, Gulranick R. 2014. Avibase - a database system for managing and organizing taxonomic concepts. ZooKeys 420: 117-135 (25 Jun 2014). doi: 10.3897/zookeys.420.7089 http://zookeys.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=3906.

Family classification is largely derived from the Howard and Moore Checklist of the Birds of the World (4th edition) for extant birds and from the fossilworks.org website for fossil species. Click on a family node to see the complete list of Avibase taxonomic concepts within that group.

Browse families include fossil bird taxa include hybrids