Summary
This, the tenth edition of the Checklist of the Birds of Britain, referred to throughout as the British List, has been prepared as a statement of the status of those species and subspecies known to have occurred in Britain and its coastal waters (Fig. 1). It incorporates all changes to the British List up to and including the 54th Report of the British Ornithologists' Union Records Committee (BOURC) (BOU 2022b), and detailed in BOURC Reports published in Ibis since the publication of the ninth edition of the British List (BOU 2018a). This tenth edition replaces The British List: A Checklist of Birds of Britain (ninth edition) (BOU 2018a). Downloadable simple list and excel versions of the tenth edition of the British List can be found at https://www.bou.org.uk/british-list/. The British List is the systematic list of bird species and subspecies that have occurred in Britain and its coastal waters (Fig. 1); it is maintained by the British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) through its Records Committee (BOURC). The Northern Ireland List and the Manx List are maintained by their respective organisations. Decisions by the Manx Ornithological Society for the Isle of Man will continue to be published in Ibis within BOURC Reports. However, decisions of the Northern Ireland Birdwatchers' Association relating to the Northern Ireland List are no longer published within BOURC Reports. The British List is under continuous revision by BOURC. New species and subspecies are either added or removed, following assessment and/or changes in taxonomic status; these are updated on the BOU website (https://www.bou.org.uk/british-list/recent-announcements/) at the time of the change, but only come into effect on the List on publication in a BOURC Report in Ibis. A list of the species and subspecies removed from the British List since the ninth edition, due to changes in the IOC World Bird List, is shown in Appendix 1. In 2017, following a comprehensive review by BOURC, BOU announced that it would adopt, from 1 January 2018, the IOC World Bird List (Gill et al. 2022) for all its taxonomic requirements, including the British List (BOU 2017b). The taxonomy and sequence of species in this tenth edition of the British List follows the IOC World Bird List, using version 12.1, which was current at the time of going to press. The IOC World Bird List complements three other world bird lists that each have a different emphasis in their goals and taxonomic approach: The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World, 4th Edition (Trust for Avian Systematics 2020), The Clements Checklist (Cornell Lab of Ornithology 2020a), and HBW Alive/Bird Life International (Cornell Lab of Ornithology 2020b). It is anticipated that the four global checklists will in the future align, and a Working Group Avain Checklists (WGAC) has been formed by the International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) to implement this aim (IOU 2020). The motivation to create internationally recognised English names of birds dates back to 1978 when the Royal Australian Ornithologists' Union (now BirdLife Australia) first addressed the subject, followed by the American Ornithologists' Union (now American Ornithological Society) in 1983, with BOURC joining the process in 1985 (Atkin et al. 1988, BOU, 1992a, Inskipp & Sharrock 1992). In 1990 the then International Ornithological Congress (IOC – later renamed the International Ornithologists' Union (IOU)) brought together ornithologists to help deliver the first list of international English bird names. This culminated in 2006 with the publication of Birds of the World: recommended English names (Gill & Wright 2006). Updates to this title have since been published on the International Ornithological Community (IOC) World Bird List website http://www.worldbirdnames.org (Gill et al. 2022). Changes to bird names can be controversial, especially when many of the established vernacular names have national, historical or cultural associations. Thus, to
Outcomes reported
Referenced by Nature Communications British biodiversity scenarios as citation 126; likely supports topic area: biodiversity / conservation. Topics: biodiversity / conservation Evidence type: Research article / other Source report: Nature Communications British biodiversity scenarios Ref#: Nature Communications British biodiversity scenarios #126 Original: McInerny, C. J., Musgrove, A. J., Gilroy, J. J. & Dudley, S. P. & the British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee (BOURC). The British List: A Checklist of Birds of Britain 10th edn, Vol. 164, 860-910 (Ibis, 2022).
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