NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Bird species new to science

This is the parent page for a series of pages listing bird species new to science described since 1900. Prior to the 20th Century and indeed into the early decades of the twentieth century, the pace of discovery of new species was fast; during this period, with numerous collecting expeditions into species-rich areas not previously visited by western ornithologists, up to several hundred new species per decade were being described. Since then, the pace has slowed, and new species are generally only being found in remote areas, or among cryptic or secretive groups of species. Nonetheless, several tens of species were described for the first time during the 1990s. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the...

Publication of new species

The Meise and AMNH reviews

During the 20th Century, ornithologists published a number of periodic reviews of newly described species. The purpose of each of these reviews was the collecting together in a single paper, for ease of reference, all new species descriptions published in the period of study, and to present an analysis of these, indicating which represent valid species, and which, for various reasons, do not (see the section below entitled "New species or not a new species?")

The first such review was published in 1934, by the ornithologist W. Meise, covering the period 1920 to 1934. Meise presented his review to the Eighth International Ornithological Congress (IOC) in Oxford. The review listed 600 new species names described in that period. Meise was of the opinion that between 135 and 200 represented good species. At the ninth IOC in 1938, Meise presented a second paper, listing 23 new species described in the intervening period, plus a further 36 which had been described during 1920-1934 and not covered in the earlier paper. Meise's papers: Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 (2001 census). ...

After the Second World War, ornithologists based at museums in the American Museum of Natural History produced further reviews; again, each of these listed newly described species and presented an analysis, indicating which were & were not good species. To date six such papers have been compiled; they are, in chronological order: Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... The American Museum of Natural History is a landmark of Manhattans Upper West Side in New York, USA, at 79th Street and Central Park West. ...

No further detailed analyses have been published since the 1992 paper, although the British magazine Birding World has published two articles by Oscar van Rootselaar listing newly-described species since 1990: The Auk is a quarterly journal and the official publication of the American Ornithologists Union, having been continuously published by that body since 1883. ... The Bulletin of the British Ornithologists Club (ISSN 0007-1595) is an ornithological journal published by the British Ornithologists Club. ... Birding World is a monthly birding journal in the United Kingdom. ...

New species or not a new species?

A number of species described during this period have turned out not to be valid species. There are a numbe of reasons for this. The following is a list of these species:

List to be completed Coxs Sandpiper Calidris paramelanotos is the name given to a hybrid shorebird, discovered in Australia in the 1950s by ornithologist F. T. H. Smith, and named after fellow Australian ornithologist John B. Cox. ...

Geographic spread of newly described species

The following table gives the total number of new species per decade for each zoogeographic region:

Individual countries particularly rich in species newly-described during this period are:

Discoverers

Decade by decade

Category: Bird stubs *** Work in progress *** See also parent article Bird species new to science The following are the bird species described as new to science in the years 1960 to 1969: 1960 The year 1960 saw the publication of accounts of the following new species: To be completed 1961 The year 1961... *** Work in progress *** See also parent article Bird species new to science The following are the bird species described as new to science in the years 1980 to 1989: 1980 The year 1980 saw the publication of accounts of the following new species: To be completed 1981 The year 1981... *** Work in progress *** See also parent article Bird species new to science The following are the bird species described as new to science in the years 1990 to 1999: 1990 The year 1990 saw the publication of accounts of the following new species: To be completed 1991 The year 1991... *** Work in progress *** See also parent article Bird species new to science This page details the bird species described as new to science in the years 2000 to 2005: Summary statistics Number of species described per year Countries with the highest number of newly described species Brazil - Peru - Indonesia - The...