Taxonomy Revisions

This page shows the revisions which have occurred in the Working List of Australian Birds (BWL) taxonomy used on this website since we commenced using it (at v1.1) until the latest (v4.3) list.  That list is available for download here.

Splits and Lumps in Taxonomy

Whilst most of us think we know what a 'species' is, scientists called taxonomists are continually assessing the genetic makeup and other aspects of species, and this can result in changes. Not all taxonomists agree, and different lists (taxonomies) may have different sets of species!

Sometimes they decide that what were previously regarded as two separate species, such as Rufous Fantail and Arafura Fantail, are in fact sufficiently closely related that they are best regarded as a single species - in this case the Rufous Fantail. This is called a 'lump'.

As far as this website is concerned, this is very simple: all photos that were originally uploaded as Rufous or Arafura Fantails are now re-assigned to Rufous Fantail. In the case of newer lumps we update the comment on the photos to say what the original species was. You can no longer upload an image as Arafura Fantail, or search for Arafura Fantail in the lists.

On other occasions they decide that what was previously thought of as a single species, such as Thick-billed Grasswren, contains sufficient differences that it deserves to be regarded as two or more species - in this case Thick-billed Grasswren and Western Grasswren. This is called a 'split'.

Splits are much more complex for us to handle. We have photos of 'Thick-billed Grasswren' and now they may be of either species. In some cases it is easy to determine (eg. based on range), in others very hard. Our solution to this (using Thick-billed Grasswren as an example) is as follows:

• All existing photos of Thick-billed Grasswren are assigned to a new name: 'Thick-billed Grasswren complex'.
• Over time the original photographers or the moderators will attempt to assign such images to the correct new species. To assist in this, when editing an image of a 'complex' the list of new species will be shown.
• When you upload you have to make a choice of Thick-billed or Western Grasswren. Because you may not have realised the species has been split there will be an indication of this on the upload page if you select Thick-billed.
• If you search for images of 'Thick-billed Grasswren complex' you will get all images of that name, together with any images of the new species - Thick-billed or Western Grasswren.
• If you search for one of the new species - e.g. Western Grasswren - you will get images of that species and the complex.
• Note that in this example the name of one of the new species is the same as the name of the original single species. In some splits (e.g. Rockhopper Penguin into Northern and Southern) this is not the case.

For completeness, this page contains details of all changes in updates to BirdLife Australia's Working List of Australian Birds (BWL) used on this site since February 2016.

Lumps:

• Imperial Shag and Kerguelen Shag lumped as Imperial Shag
• White-lined Honeyeater and Kimberley Honeyeater lumped as White-lined Honeyeater
• Rufous Fantail and Arafura Fantail lumped as Rufous Fantail
• Scarlet Robin and Pacific Robin lumped as Scarlet Robin
• Eastern Yellow Wagtail and Green-headed Yellow Wagtail lumped as Yellow Wagtail

Splits:

• Wandering Albatross split into Wandering Albatross, Amsterdam Albatross, Tristan Albatross and Antipodean Albatross
• Royal Albatross split into Northern Royal Albatross and Southern Royal Albatross
• Black-browed Albatross split into Black-browed Albatross and Campbell Albatross
• Shy Albatross split into Shy Albatross, White-capped Albatross, Chatham Albatross and Salvin's Albatross
• Yellow-nosed Albatross split into Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross and Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross
• Rockhopper Penguin split into Southern Rockhopper Penguin and Northern Rockhopper Penguin
• Macaroni Penguin split into Macaroni Penguin and Royal Penguin
• Ground Parrot split into Western Ground Parrot and Eastern Ground Parrot (this split has been reversed in the upgrade to v2)
• Little Bronze-Cuckoo split into Little Bronze-Cuckoo and Gould's Bronze-Cuckoo (this split has been reversed in the upgrade to v2)
• Thick-billed Grasswren split into Thick-billed Grasswren and Western Grasswren

Changes from BWL v4.1 to BWL v4.3

Other changes

Changes from BWL v4 to BWL v4.1

Other changes

Changes from BWL v3 to BWL v4

Other changes

Changes from BWL v2.1 to BWL v3

Other changes

Changes from BWL v1.1 to BWL v2.1

Other changes