The Howard and Moore complete checklist of the birds of the world: Volume 1 – non-passerines

For a long time many birdwatchers have used ‘Howard & Moore’ as the basis for their world birding lists. However, with the third edition published in 2003, although with some updates published online since then, it has been seen recently as rather out of date, especially with the great many changes to taxonomy that have occurred in the last 10 years.

This new edition is a complete revision but retains the information for which H&M has always stood out, i.e. the comprehensive footnotes and justification of each decision. The taxonomic proliferation has also meant that two volumes are now needed (the passerine volume is due later in 2013) and the complete reference list is relegated to an accompanying CD.

As with all such lists few will agree with all the taxonomic decisions. Several novel, to me at least, scientific names (mainly genus) are introduced, a few families are split up, the overall treatment seems more conservative than some other lists (e.g. several recent species split off by other authors are lumped), and especially the order of families (and often species within families) is very different from most other lists. All of these make the index absolutely essential especially for smaller groups. It makes no definitive statement on English names though and even allows some alternatives!

This is a major work and one which has some advantages for the researcher. Whether people will use this in preference to Clements or the IOC list (the two other main world lists) remains to be seen, however.   

[Please note: upon application for a licence by purchasers of the book, five updates to this new edition will be issued periodically and free of charge, via an email link and password]

Book reviewed by Peter Lack