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Avibase Bibliographic Data, v.1

About this dataset

This file contains bibliographic data of original descriptions of taxa for some of the contemporary taxonomies available on birds, as managed within Avibase (https://avibase.ca). This list only represents only a subset of the currently used names among approximately 90,000 original avian names catalogued in Avibase. It is important to note that properly attributing names following the ICZN principle of priority (Article 23, https://code.iczn.org/) can sometimes be controversial and at times intractable, in particular due to uncertainly regarding actual publication dates of older work. This bibliographic work is being used as the source and incorporated into the Avilist checklist, the Clements/eBird checklist, and the Birds of the World web site, among others.

Recommended citation

Lepage, Denis. 2025. Avibase Bibliographic Data, v.1. Accessed on 19/01/2026 from https://avibase.ca/avibase_data_bibliographic_2025_v1.jsp doi: https://doi.org/10.71842/avibase-knzy-qv82

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Downloads

Excel format: avibase_data_bibliographic_2025_v1.xlsx (published 19 Dec. 2025)

Field descriptions

avibase_id	Unique Avibase taxonomic concept ID.
sort_order	Sorting order for the specific authority.
level	Taxon rank (genus, species, subspecies, etc.)
name_id	Unique Avibase identifier for the bibliographic record.
family	Family number within the authority.
sci_name	Full scientific name as published by the authority.
subgenus_name	Subgenus name (if available).
species_code	Species code as published by the authority (if available).
family_name	Family name as published by the authority.
authors	List of all authors of the original description.
authors_et_al	List of all authors of the original description, abbreviated with et al. when there are more than 4 authors.
year	Year of publication of the original description associated with the protonym.
authors_brackets	Boolean. Whether the authors name should be placed in brackets, based on the original genus in which the species was described.
publ_id	Unique Avibase identifier for the publication source (e.g. journal or book).
publication_name	Name of the work where the original description was published.
volume	Volume of the work where the original description was published.
reference	Page(s) of the work where the original description was published.
gender	Gender of the genus (M: Masculine, F: Feminine, N: Neuter).
type_name_id	For Genera (or higher taxonomy), name_id of the type species or taxon.
type	For Genera (or higher taxonomy), information on the type species or taxon.
type_locality	Type locality of the original specimen or description.
notes	Additional notes
title	Title of the work where the original description was published.
url	URL of the work where the original description was published.
original_genus	Contemporary spelling of the original genus nam, excluding any diacritics, punctuations, typographic errors or spelling variants, primarily used to compare with the current genus name for the purpose of bracketing.
protonym	Name as published in the original description (protonym, also called basionym)

Acknowledgments

I am much indebted to the many dedicated people who have spent a great amount of their time and their life compiling this information before me. Much of the bibliographic data compiled in Avibase was built on the work of people such as David Sherborn, Charles Wallace Richmond, James Lee Peters, Richard Howard, Alick Moore, Alan Peterson (https://www.zoonomen.net/) and Edward Dickinson. There are also countless individuals who have helped me over the years, in smaller or more significant ways. Hopefully, most of them are mentioned in my acknowledgments, and my apologies to anyone who feel should also be included (please do contact me).

I am also incredibly thankful for the extraordinary resource that is the Biodiversity Heritage Library, which has catalogued a majority of the work where the original descriptions of birds (and much of the tree of life) was published.

References

AviList Core Team. 2025. AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025. https://doi.org/10.2173/avilist.v2025 https://www.avilist.org/checklist/v2025/
Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, M. Smith, and C. L. Wood. 2024. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2024. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2025. IOC World Bird List (v 15.1). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.15.1. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
HBW and BirdLife International (2025). Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 10. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/about-our-science/taxonomy#birdlife-s-taxonomic-checklist
Petersen, AP. Zoonomen. https://www.zoonomen.net/.