Hello John,
This is specifically a FOUR letter code system. the only odd one being Emu, which doesn’t have 4 letters to choose an extension from. I point out that there are no “/” or lower case letters in the abbreviations list. There are some pairs that require some alternates to the usual rules. I had mentioned the Thornbill one. I don’t know what option was chosen for White-breasted Woodswallow but no doubt something that works. You will note that the list I included does have Long-billed Corella (LOCO) and Little Black Cormorant (LBCO) and so they too are clear. I have it on old advice many years ago that the full list exists for all Australian birds with no ambiguities but I have not personally checked this. I would feel confident that someone has. I do not know if these codes have been updated for some new names or for all the new vagrant species on the Australian list in recent years. I expect someone on birding aus must have the full Australian list.
The list I sent is only a subset, as it is what I used of relevance to Canberra. Although as mentioned, I actually built the Garden Bird Survey (GBS) database for Canberra Ornithologists Group by using the Atlas numbers. I think a letter code system is easier to remember than numbers.
Please John or anyone, don’t think these are my codes. I don’t deserve credit on that one. I did not devise or in any way add to that list. I think is decades old and long pre dates my interest in these things. I set up the Word document in the way it was presented and sent to you. According to my computer, that document I sent to Birding Aus today, was last modified on my computer in August 1998.
Philip
