I have both Australian and New Guinea Checklists based on IOC 2012, I am happy to send out to anyone interested, and both have completely new editions with a great deal of re-sequencing to follow recent important papers on honeyeaters and Australasian robins. Western Hooded Robin makes it, and good to see Papuan Scrub-robin split from Northern Scrub-robin which I’d been flagging in several previous versions- always nice when field observations of vocalizations, behaviour and plumage get backed up by genetic data.
I have been slightly proactive and have split the 3 shrike-tits plus Yellow Rosella, Mallee Ringneck and Tasmanian Masked Owl in the new one. I have held off on boobooks until I see Frank Rheindt’s conclusions in his big review of Ninox, I expect to see a few more in the region at least. Such decisions are italicized so you can see where these likely pending splits are.
The checklists arose out of my frustration at dealing with checklists that were nearly 20 years out of date for Australia and worse for New Guinea, the first were published in 2008 and i now endeavour to keep them bang up to date on-line- these new ones will be on my sicklebillsafaris,com website in the next couple of days when i can harass my son into uploading them. The versions currently there are the mid-2012 ones, the new ones are a big alteration so please bear with me until I get them uploaded. The statistics at the back make interesting reading Checklist statistics
Total from mainland (inc. Tasmania) only
818 476 non-passerines, 353 passerines
Ship assisted vagrants excluded above
3
Non-Passerines endemics
476 with 118 endemic
Passerines
353 with 235 endemic
Total bird species mainland and nearby islands
829
Distant Island Territory Additions
91
Total Bird Species in Checklist
920 + 3 ship assisted= 923
Total mainland and nearby island endemics
353 + 1 Extinct (Paradise Parrot) 43% endemic
Total distant island endemics
11 (White-chested White-eye ? Extinct)
Total endemics in checklist
364
Category AE species on mainland
172 (with 103 non-passerines, 70 passerines)
Category AE species on islands
4
Total AE category in checklist
176
Introduced species
26 (with 24 on mainland, 2 on distant islands)
Endemic families
5
Endemic families (5)
Pedionomidae (Plains-Wanderer) Menuridae (Lyrebirds) Atrichornithidae (Scrub-birds), Dasyornithidae (Bristlebirds) Pardalotidae (Pardalotes)
Phil Gregory
Website 1: Http://www.sicklebillsafaris.com Website 2: Http://www.cassowary-house.com.au
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