Australian Faunal Directory

This section of the Australian Faunal Directory is a checklist to those species and subspecies of birds known to occur in Australia. Also included are the available names for most taxa; species common names; the Census of Australian Vertebrate Species (CAVS) code numbers; a catalogue level treatment to 14 of the families (Columbidae to Coraciidae) taken directly from Schodde & Mason (1997); and slightly less detailed treatments of the Passeriformes and Charadriiformes, prepared by N.W. Longmore in 2006 and 2008, respectively.

The valid names and classification applied in this checklist follow Christidis and Boles (2008).

Details are not available at present for some of the bird groups, but will be added to the AFD as they become available. For detailed introductory remarks on families covered by Schodde and Mason (1997), the user is referred to that publication.

Location of museum collections are detailed in Joseph (2011).

Geographic Scope
The geographic scope of this avian checklist, as throughout the Zoological Catalogue of Australia Vol. 37.2, extends to Australia's overseas territories of Antarctica, Macquarie Is., Heard Is., Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) Ils, Ashmore Reef, and Torres Strait, Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands. The distribution of terminal taxa, originally summarised according to the standardised list of computer search terms mostly describing drainage basins on mainland Australia, have now been converted to IBRA regions. The conversion has probably introduced some errors and it is hoped that these can be corrected in time.

Distribution records, if any, outside areas under Australian jurisdiction are listed as extralimital. The distribution descriptors for each species are collated to genus level. Users are advised that extralimital distribution for some taxa may not be complete.

Synonymies.
Synonymies are limited generally to names applied in the Australian fauna, in their original combinations; new combinations based on the same types are excluded as redundant. For clarification or to avert confusion as to their status, published nomenclatural inaccuracies may be included even though they have no formal standing in nomenclature.

Acknowledgements
During the period 2010 to late 2014, Wayne Longmore, now retired from Museum Victoria, built on the basic names list supplied to ABRS by Richard (Dick) Schodde, by adding a vast body of information, especially on authorities, dates and types for names in the Australian avifauna. In carrying out this task, he was assisted with information and advice by so many bird workers, museum curators and librarians worldwide.

The following are acknowledged for their assistance and support:
Berg, Hans-Martin – Natural History Museum, Austria
Boles, Walter – Australian Museum, New South Wales
Davies, Greg - Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, South Africa
Dean, Richard - University of Cape Town, South Africa
Dekker, Rene- National Museum of Natural History Naturalis, The Netherlands
Dowsett, Robert - France
Fisher, Clemency - National Museums, Liverpool, England
Fuchs, Jérôme - Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, France
Gill, Brian – Auckland Museum and At Gallery, New Zealand
Graves, Gary – United States National Museum, USA
Hagemann, Molly – Bishop Museum, USA
Horton, Philippa, South Australian Museum, South Australia
Johnstone, Ron, Western Australian Museum, Western Australia
Joseph, Leo – Australian National Wildlife Collection, Australian Capital Territory
LeCroy, Mary – American Museum of Natural History, USA
Loskot, Vladimir – Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia
Olson, Storrs – United States National Museum, USA
Palmer, Robert - Australian National Wildlife Collection, Australian Capital Territory
Pethers, Hellen - Natural History Museum, England
Prys-Jones, Robert - - Natural History Museum, England
Schmidt, Brian - United States National Museum, USA
Schodde, Richard – Australian Capital Territory
Schofield, Paul – Canterbury Museum, New Zealand
Sladek, Jaynia – Australian Museum, New South Wales
Sweet, Paul – American Museum of Natural History, USA
Tennyson, Alan – Te Papa Museum, New Zealand
Tomkovich, Pavel - Zoological Museum, Moscow State University, Russia
Violani, Carlo - Dipartimento Biologia Animale, Università di Pavia, Italy
Wilson, Renee – National Library of Australia, Australian Capital Territory
and finally, the Librarians at the Australian Museum, New South Wales.