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The British List: A Checklist of Birds of Britain (8th edition)

2013; Wiley; Volume: 155; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/ibi.12069

1474-919X

Andrew Harrop, J. M. Collinson, Steve Dudley, Chris Kehoe,

Species Distribution and Climate Change

Recommended citation: British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). 2013. The British List: a checklist of birds of Britain. 8th ed. Ibis 155: 635–676. This eighth edition of the Checklist of the Birds of Britain, now titled The British List, has been prepared as a statement of the status of those species and subspecies that are known to have occurred in Britain and its sea areas (up to a maximum of 320 km, 200 miles) see map below (Fig. 1, reproduced from Ibis 130: 337). It incorporates all the changes to the British List up to 30 September 2012 (the 41st Report of the British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee, Ibis 155: 194–197) and detailed in the BOURC reports published in Ibis since the publication of the seventh edition (BOU 2006). This eighth edition replaces the 2006 The British List: A Checklist of Birds of Britain (7th edition) (Ibis 148: 526–563). The British List is the list of birds recorded in Britain and is maintained by the British Ornithologists’ Union through its Records Committee (BOURC). The Republic of Ireland List, the Northern Ireland List and the Manx List are maintained by their respective organizations. Decisions of the Manx Ornithological Society (for the Isle of Man) will continue to be published in Ibis within the BOURC reports. However, decisions of the Northern Ireland Birdwatchers’ Association (for Northern Ireland) and the Irish Rare Birds Committee (for the Republic of Ireland) are no longer published within BOURC reports. The British List is under constant revision by the BOURC. New species and subspecies are added, and some are removed following reassessment (the review of many subspecies, at both record and taxonomic levels, has begun as a result of work on this edition of the Checklist). The taxonomy and sequence are reviewed as an ongoing process by the BOURC Taxonomic Sub-committee (BOURC-TSC). English names are considered by BOURC when changes in taxonomy occur. New information on distribution and movements is incorporated. In addition, during the course of this update not all outstanding issues relating to many species, and in particular subspecies, could be resolved, so these items have been left as previously accepted and will be subject to further review before the next edition of the Checklist. In maintaining the British List, BOURC relies on BOURC-TSC to advise on taxonomic issues relating to the species that form the British List. This advice usually takes the form of recommendations relating to higher level systematics (including the presented sequence of families, genera and species on the British List) and species-level taxonomy, which sometimes results in ‘splitting’ and ‘lumping’ of species. The guidelines BOURC-TSC uses to determine species rank were published in Ibis 144: 518–525. BOURC-TSC publishes its taxonomic recommendations in Ibis, the most recent report appearing in Ibis 154: 874–883. The order in which birds are listed is meant to reflect their evolution. If one were to draw an evolutionary tree of birds, those families that branch off earliest (i.e. are the most ancient) should be listed first. Previously, the British List was based on the Voous Order (Voous, 1977). In October 2002, BOURC-TSC published its first report in which it recommended that the order in which the species on the British List were listed be changed (Ibis 144: 707–710). Multiple phylogenetic studies, many using DNA analysis, were subsequently published that continued to show that the order of birds in the British List did not properly reflect their evolution. The deepest branch point in the evolutionary tree of birds splits them into the Palaeognathae (tinamous and ‘ratites’) and the Neognathae (all other birds). Within the Neognathae, the deepest branch-point splits them into Galloanserae (see below) and Neoaves (all remaining birds). The Galloanserae are composed of two ‘sister’ groups – Anseriformes (waterfowl) and Galliformes (turkeys, guineafowl, megapodes, grouse, pheasants, etc.). The World list would therefore start with Palaeognathae, but because only Neognathae occur in Britain, the British List commences with the Galloanserae, as the deepest split from all other birds (Neoaves). Within the Galloanserae there are fewer species of Anseriformes than Galliformes, and therefore Anseriformes are listed first in accordance with normal custom. Changes to the family and generic limits of Western Palearctic Galliformes, including the inclusion of all grouse (formerly Tetraonidae), within Phasianidae are outlined in the Eighth Recommendations of the BOURC-TSC (Ibis 154: 874–883). The recommendation to list flamingos and grebes (Mirandornithes) together after the Ciconiiformes (storks, herons, ibises and spoonbills) was made in the Fourth Recommendations of BOURC-TSC (Ibis 149: 853–857) and later adopted in the 39th BOURC report (Ibis 152: 199–204). Revised taxonomic sequences of the Charadriiformes are explained in the Eighth Recommendations of the BOURC-TSC (Ibis 154: 874–883). A major revision of songbird sequences was brought forward in the BOURC-TSC Sixth Recommendations (Ibis 152: 180–186), with further modifications of North American wood warblers and Muscicapinae (chats and flycatchers) in the Seventh Report (Ibis 153: 883–892). The species-level taxonomy and nomenclature therefore follow the above treatment. Subspecific taxonomy follows the sixth edition of the Checklist, as modified in the subsequent BOURC reports. The validity and recognition of subspecies remain a problem, given the clinal nature of much variation and the lack of recent research on many taxa in the Western Palaearctic. Future reports of the BOURC will give details of changes to the List as new work clarifies the nature of variation in certain taxa. Recognizing the largely shared avifauna and the close working relationship that exists between ornithologists throughout Europe, the BOU participates in discussions with a view to common action, if appropriate, through the Association of European Rarities Committees (AERC), which was formed in 1991. The BOURC actively supports its main aims, which are to foster co-operation between European rarities and records committees, to promote standardization in record assessment and recording, and to help to raise standards. Before the publication of the 1992 Checklist, a major project to establish standard internationally recognized English names (as opposed to local vernacular names) of birds had already been instigated by the International Ornithological Union (IOU – formerly the International Ornithological Congress, or IOC). This is documented in Ibis 130 (S1: 1–23); the 16th report of the Records Committee (Ibis 134: 211–214); and in British Birds 81: 355–377 and British Birds 85: 263–290. Because such extensive changes are understandably disruptive, given the historical and cultural associations of many of the older, established, local vernacular names, and because the proposed international names were at that stage still relatively unfamiliar, the 1992 and 2005 Checklists listed both the proposed international English name (in bold) and, where it differed, the older established vernacular name. In 2006 this work culminated in the publication of Birds of the World: Recommended English Names (Gill & Wright 2006); since then updates have been regularly posted online at http://www.worldbirdnames.org (Gill & Donsker 2013). In this edition of the List we maintain the BOU policy of publishing both the IOC international English name and the local vernacular name (BOURC 35th Report: Ibis 149: 652–654), though for taxonomic and other reasons, from this edition the BOU English name is listed first in bold, followed by the international English name(s) where they differ. The IOU international English names used here are those of version 3.3, which was current at the time of going to press. Since the publication of the second edition of A List of British Birds (BOU 1915) there have been many changes to the vernacular names of even some of the most familiar of British birds. In 1915, the Robin was known as Redbreast, tits were titmice and the Dunnock was the Hedge-Sparrow (note the hyphen). In 1915, the list of British bird names also contained many inconsistencies, none more so than the inconsistent use of hyphens, e.g. Black-Grouse (but no hyphen in Red Grouse) and Reed-Bunting (but no hyphen in Little Bunting). Many of these hyphenated forms have since been dropped and family names are more clearly defined. The use of hyphens can, however, be very useful in helping to differentiate between species, even at the vernacular level. For many years, birders have used Stone Curlew for Burhinus oedicnemus, but this suggests that this species is related to the Numenius curlews such as Curlew and Whimbrel when it clearly is not. The same also applies to Honey Buzzard Pernis apivorus, which is not related to the Buteo buzzards, and Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax, which is not an Ardea heron or related to any of the smaller heron species. In these instances, the BOU feels that it is justified to alter the written form of a vernacular name without changing the spoken form of the name in order to make the true species form distinct. As such, the BOU uses the vernacular names of Stone-curlew, Honey-buzzard and Night-heron in its publications. Each species is categorized, depending on the criteria for its admission to the British List, and the Category (A, B or C) appears to the right of the English name. Species in Categories D, E and F do not form part of the main list. Category D species are listed in Appendix 1. Category E species are listed on the BOU website, although this list is acknowledged to be incomplete, as few observers bother to report ‘obvious’ escapes. Where species on Categories A, B or C are known to have occurred as escapes, this is indicated in this Checklist. Preparation of a first publication and a provisional database of species in Category F is currently being undertaken. In 1995, the BOU and Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) held a conference on naturalized and introduced birds in Britain (Holmes & Simons 1996). This led to a review of the process of establishment of such species and the terms that best describe their status (Holmes & Stroud 1995) as well as a major review of the categorization of species on the British List (Holmes et al. 1998). Further redefinitions of the categories have occurred since and these are summarized in the BOURC's 31st Report (Ibis 147: 246–250) and a further review was carried out as part of a review of Category C species for the 7th edition (Dudley 2005), which further redefined existing categories and introduced a new subcategory within Category C (C6 – see below). Note that Category B used to refer to records up to 31 December 1957 but, to accord with European practice, is now to 31 December 1949. A species is usually placed in only one category, but some are placed in multiple categories, for example those species occurring in Category A which now have naturalized populations (e.g. Red Kite). The British List comprises only those species in Categories A, B and C. Many records committees around the world have based their own species categories on these BOU categories. Abbreviated codes are given for the status of each race on the List: Some of these codes are only generalizations. For example, many forms listed as WM may occasionally be found in summer. RB and MB together imply that the species is a partial migrant in which a proportion of the population leaves Britain in winter. CB includes those where there are fewer than 10 breeding attempts each year. HB was introduced to denote those species which have been recorded breeding with another closely related species (e.g. Pied-billed Grebe Podilymbus podiceps with Little Grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis). HB does not attempt to cover all species which have formed hybrid pairings. V is reserved for rare taxa; descriptions are required for these species by the British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC; denoted by † within the systematic list) and some of the rarer subspecies; descriptions are also required for all species in Category D. For vagrants in particular, the acceptance of the subspecies named as having occurred in Britain should be treated with a degree of caution. Many subspecies gained admission to the list on the basis of a single individual, often many decades ago. Chance or other factors may have led to the identification of a race which is not the one which occurs most frequently. For each species and (where possible) subspecies, the number of birds that have ever occurred is noted where the total is fewer than 100. This information is based on data to 31 December 2011, extracted from records held by BBRC. Details of the first record of rarer species are given in those cases where there is an identifiable first. If there is an extant specimen, its current location is given if known. BOURC would welcome further information on the location of specimens of British firsts that have not been listed here. The number of species recorded in Britain, within each category, is as follows: As stated above, species in Categories D, E and F do not form part of the British List. In addition, there have been records of White- or Black-bellied Storm Petrel Fregetta grallaria/tropica, the Madeiran/Band-rumped Storm Petrel complex Oceanodroma castro/jabejabe/monteiroi, and ‘southern skua’ Stercorarius maccormicki/antarcticus which were not safely identified to species level and thus do not form part of the species totals and are not included in the systematic list below. Changes to the Systematic List since the publication of the seventh edition of the Checklist in 2006 (Ibis 148: 526–563) have been detailed in the 34th–41st BOURC reports, the full citations for which are in the References section. Superscript notations 1–8 have been used here to direct the reader to the 34th–41st BOURC reports, respectively. Many people assist BOURC in its work and we would like to extend our special thanks to the following for their input into this Checklist and related items (with sincere apologies for any omissions): Jeremy Adams, Mark Adams (Bird Group, Natural History Museum), Ian Andrews, David Ballance, Clare Brown (Leeds Museum), Joan Castany, Peter Castell, Paul Chapman, Walter Chapman, Tim Cleeves, Katrina Cook, Andrea Corso, Pierre-André Crochet, Nicola Crockford, Ian Dawson, Paul Doherty, Jennifer Downes (University of Aberdeen Science Collections), Roger Everhart, James Ferguson-Lees, Marc Förschler, Meritxell Genovart, George Gordon, Marcel Güntert, Marcel Haas, Lucy Hall, Trevor Hardaker, Paul Harvey, Ren Hathway, Steve Hewitt, Steve Howell, Nigel Hudson (BBRC Secretary), Tony Irwin (Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery), Frederic Jiguet, Peter Kennerley, Guy Kirwan, Richard Klim, Peter de Knijff, Alan Knox, Martin Limbert, Neville McKee, Nicola McNicholas, Amanda Martin, Aurelio Martin, Eric Morton (Hancock Museum), Ray Murray, Keith Naylor, Jason Newton (Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre), Wilf Norman (Whitby Museum), Steve Nye (Guildhall Museum, Rochester), Mike Pennington, Steve Preddy, Robert Prýs-Jones (Bird Group, Natural History Museum), Robin Prytherch, Peter Pyle, Nick Riddiford, Roger Riddington, Peter Robinson, Mike Rogers, Kees Roselaar, Angela Ross, Deryk Shaw, Craig Sherwood (Warrington Museum), Julia Sigwart, Don Stenhouse (Bolton Museum and Archive Service), Richard Sutcliffe, Lars Svensson, Paul Sweet, Angela Turner (Ulster Museum, Belfast), Paolo Viscardi, Steve Waite, Grahame Walbridge, Tony Walentowicz (Chelmsford Museum), Roger Wilkinson, Mike Wilson (University of Oxford), Russell Wynn and Bernie Zonfrillo. Members (in addition to listed authors) who served on the Committee whilst this update was being produced were: Colin Bradshaw (BBRC representative), Andy Brown, James Gilroy, Andrew Lassey, Ian Lewington, Bob McGowan (Chairman 2006–2010), Tim Melling (Secretary 1999–2007), Richard Millington, Adam Rowlands (BBRC representative), Jimmy Steele, Steve Votier and Grahame Walbridge. The following list includes items cited above and other articles relevant to the British List and therefore of interest to readers. The superscript numbered items (1–8) in the list refer specifically to BOURC Reports published since the last (7th) edition of the Checklist, which are cited within the main body of the species list above, and in the appendix (1–3) below. They are given numerical references to save space and improve the presentation of the systematic list. British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). 1915. A List of British Birds, 2nd and revised edn. London: BOU. British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). 1988. British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee 13th Report (December 1987). Ibis 130: 334–337. British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). 1992. British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee 16th Report (December 1991). Ibis 134: 211–214. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1992.tb08401.x/pdf British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). 1999. British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee 25th Report (October 1998). Ibis 141: 175–180. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1999.tb04282.x/pdf British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). 2002. British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee 28th Report (October 2001). Ibis 144: 181–184. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.0019-1019.2001.00024.x/pdf British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). 2003. British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee 34th Report (January 2004). Ibis 146: 192–196. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1999.tb04282.x/pdf British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). 2006. The British List: A Checklist of Birds of Britain (seventh edition). Ibis 148: 526–563. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2006.00603.x/pdf British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). 2005. British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee 31st Report (October 2004). Ibis 147: 246–250. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2005.00394.x/pdf 1British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). 2007. British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee 34th Report (October 2006). Ibis 149: 194–197. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2006.00651.x/pdf 2British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). 2007. British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee 35th Report (April 2007). Ibis 149: 652–654. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2007.00727.x/pdf 3British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). 2008. British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee 36th Report (November 2007). Ibis 150: 218–220. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2007.00792.x/pdf 4British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). 2009. British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee 37th Report (October 2008). Ibis 151: 224–230. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2008.00901.x/pdf 5British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). 2010. British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee 38th Report (October 2009). Ibis 152: 199–204. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2009.00982.x/pdf 6British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). 2011. British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee 39th Report (October 2010). Ibis 153: 227–232. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2010.01081.x/pdf 7British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). 2012. British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee 40th Report (October 2011). Ibis 154: 212–215. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2011.01184.x/pdf 8British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). 2013. British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee 41st Report (October 2012). Ibis 155: 194–197. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ibi.12016/pdf Dudley, S.P. 2005. Changes to Category C of the British List. Ibis 147: 803–820. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2005.00470.x/pdf Gill, F. & Donsker, D. (eds) 2013. IOC World Bird List (v 3.3). Available at: http://www.worldbirdnames.org (accessed 14 April 2013). Helbig, A.J., Knox, A.G., Parkin, D.T., Sangster, G. & Collinson, M. 2002. Guidelines for assigning species rank. Ibis 144: 518–525. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1474-919X.2002.00091.x/pdf Holmes, J.S. & Simons, J.R. (eds) 1996. The Intro duction and Naturalisation of Birds. JNCC. London: The Stationery Office. http://www.jncc.gov.uk/page-4342 Holmes, J.S. & Stroud, D.A. 1995. Naturalised birds: feral, exotic, introduced or alien? Br. Birds 88: 602–603. Holmes, J.S., Marchant, J.H., Bucknell, N.J. & Parkin, D.T. 1998. The British List: new categories and their relevance to conservation. Br. Birds 91: 2–11 Naylor, K.A. 1996. A Reference Manual of Rare Birds in Britain and Ireland, Vol. 1. Privately published. Sangster, G., Collinson, J.M., Knox, A.G., Parkin, D.T. & Svensson, L. 2007. Taxonomic recommendations for British birds: Fourth report. Ibis 149: 853–857. Sangster, G., Collinson, J.M., Knox, A.G., Parkin, D.T. & Svensson, L. 2010. Taxonomic recommendations for British birds: Sixth report. Ibis 152: 180–186. Sangster, G., Collinson, J.M., Crochet, P.-A., Knox, A.G, Parkin, D.T., Svensson, L. & Votier, S.C. 2011. Taxonomic recommendations for British Birds: Seventh report. Ibis 153: 883–892. Sangster, G., Collinson, M., Crochet, P.-A., Knox, A.G., Parkin, D.T. & Votier, S.C. 2012. Taxonomic recommendations for British birds: Eighth report. Ibis 154: 874–883. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2012.01273.x/full Voous, K.H. 1977. List of Recent Holarctic Bird Species. Tring: British Ornithologists’ Union. For the list of species recorded on Category E see www.bou.org.uk/british-list. It is recognized that the list of species in Category E is currently incomplete.