FAQ Species Lists Species Lists and Authorities
.jpg "Blue-capped Rock Thrush (Monticola cinclorhynchus)")
One of the key features of BUBO Listing is that we do not personally decide what is or is not acceptable to count on a list. Instead, we make use of species lists compiled by other "authorities". For each given region, we assign a suitable authority which then determines which species are available to count on a list for that region. In some cases, more than one authority is assigned to a region, and the lister can decide which authority to follow.
We try to keep our authority base-lists as up-to-date as possible. If you are aware of an update to an authority base-list that we haven’t incorporated, then please let us know. In some cases, listers may wish to add a species that has newly occurred in a region but that doesn’t yet appear on the authority base-list. We consider such cases on their individual merit. Where we feel that it is overwhelmingly likely that a species will be added in due course, following the proper deliberations of a given authority, then we may add the species but flag it as 'provisional'. We tend to do this only for newly occurring rarities, not potential taxonomic splits. Additionally some authorities publish a 'provisional' or 'hypothetical' list: species that have been accepted as occuring but do not meet more stringent criteria that the authority in question uses for inclusion on the official list, e.g. sight records only with no photo or other documentary evidence. We also flag these species as 'provisional' within BUBO Listing.
The different authorities used by BUBO Listing are shown below. Click on an authority to read more information about it and to view the full species list for that authority:
