What's so great about a list of bird names? After all, the names that men give are just a pale reflection of the birds themselves.
Well, bird-lovers may rejoice in biodiversity, but in matters linguistic they tend to use common or garden English as a lowest common denominator. So, in the interest of 'lingua-diversity', here they are: bird species of East and Mainland Southeast Asia in Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese. The countries covered are Mongolia, Japan, the Koreas, China & Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar (excluding the Andamans), Peninsular Malaysia, and Singapore. I hope the site will be useful for birding in these countries.
The site now adopts Howard and Moore 2003 as standard. Moving back to a more conservative classification may seem a retrograde step, but there are a few reasons for preferring Howard and Moore: (1) Howard and Moore offer relatively up-to-date and detailed information on species and subspecies, (2) Sibley and Monroe do not represent the final word in the revolution in avian taxonomy; more changes can be expected, and (3) Howard and Moore is actively evolving, with a new edition due in 2009, unlike Sibley and Monroe, which is largely frozen in time. For these reasons, I've felt it was wise to take one step back in order to move forward on a firmer basis.
My thanks to Milonic for allowing me to use their menu system. Thanks to Walter Zorn for the Tooltip Javascript.
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Tables cover bird species from Japan, the Koreas, China & Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar (excluding the Andamans), Peninsular Malaysia, and Singapore. Species in green-coloured boxes have been recorded in the country or area in question (Taiwan and China are terminologically separate).
Main sources relied on can be found at Sources.
Scientific names : Sibley-Monroe (in bold purple type) was previously taken as standard. I am now switching to Howard and Moore 2003 (in bold red type), with the expectation of a major update when the next Howard and Moore world list appears. This is at a preparatory stage (moving Howard and Moore names into position, giving the Howard and Moore subspecies name where Sibley and Monroe recognises a full species, etc.).
English common names: Howard-Moore names (2003) in bold red type, Sibley-Monroe names in bold purple type, shared names in bold black type. English common names used by Cheng Tso Hsin 2000 are marked (Cheng), omitted if only one name exists.
Chinese names: For species found in China, no marking of source indicates that five sources all agree on the name: Cheng Tso-Hsin's 2000 list of Chinese birds (1), Zheng Guangmei's list of Chinese birds (2), MacKinnon and Phillipps (3), Zheng Guangmei's world list (4), and Cheng Tso-Hsin's world list (5). ZGM's list of birds of China is now taken as standard. I have added names from Cheng Tso-hsin's world list (5). Names current prior to Cheng's 2000 list are placed in "Other names", including those found in the Cheng Tso-Hsin 1976 list of birds and Viney's book of birds of Hong Kong and South China. For species outside China, no marking of sources indicates that both the ZGM world list (4) and the Cheng Tso Hsin world list (5) agree. Otherwise, the sources are specifically indicated. The name found in Lim's list of Singapore birds is shown where different.
Vietnamese names: The Vo and Nguyen Checklist of the Birds of Vietnam (12) is taken as standard. Other sources are shown below the horizontal bar.
Notes: There are often disagreements among sources over species status, species naming, etc. Previously these were dealt with in small notes, generally at the location of the Latin name. Along with the use of Sibley and Monroe and Howard and Moore as a de facto dual standard, this led to some messy and hard-to-understand notes. Henceforth, such notes will be, where possible, be included as tooltips at the relevant location. For instance, if one or more Chinese sources use different species assignments, this will be noted at the Chinese column as a tooltip. This will be more accessible, more succinct, more easily understandable, and easier to update than the current system.
marks a link to a publicly-available photo on the Internet (although subspecies may differ).
