Product Description: Birds have long held a unique dual role as a model group for scientists and as the focus of birders' passionate quests. Despite centuries of observation, each year brings the discovery and description of several entirely new avian species and hundreds of other taxonomic "splits" or "lumps" based on DNA data. In this arena of continual and increasing taxonomic change, The Clements Checklist presents the most up-to-date and most widely endorsed compendium of the more than 9800 species of birds recognized by the scientific and birding communities. This completely revised sixth edition is current as of 2005 and incorporates hundreds of updates since the last edition. In taxonomic sequence, it provides the scientific and English name of each species and a description of the worldwide range of each species and subspecies.
The most established resource on the taxonomy and biogeography of birds for the world birding community, The Clements Checklist is the official world checklist of the American Birding Association (ABA) and is used as the authoritative reference in the birding competitions and listing activities of this preeminent North American organization for serious birders.
Features of The Clements Checklist include
* comprehensive indexes with all taxa listed by English and scientific names, the latter to subspecies level; * tables and maps showing the world distribution of total bird species and endemics by geographic area, which will be of special interest to conservationists; and * space to record the location and date of individual sightings, providing the user with a personalized ornithological journal.
Essential for serious birders Several years ago I had an epiphany as a bird lover, and stopped keeping my Life List. For several years before that I was an avid bird lister. Clements was always at hand, at home or on the trail or on trips. I still read that well used copy from time to time, filled with my notes and filled with memories.
Jim Clement's checklist was first published in 1972. The 6th edition was published in 2007, and includes new updates through the end of 2005, listing over 9800 species in all. The checklist is clearly organized and easy to use. Chapters are by species, with the entries arranged alphabetically by common name. Each bird's entry includes its common name, Latin name or names, habitat range, a box to check, and a line to make notes of where and when the bird was spotted.
Two indexes are provided, one of scientific names and one of common English names. There are also a list of extinct species, appendices and maps listing the distribution of bird species and endemics, major family references, and a very comprehensive bibliography.
The checklist is continually updated by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. The updates are posted to the Lab's website on a somewhat erratic basis and will eventually be incorporated into the next edition of The Clements Checklist. Amazon doesn't permit a direct link to the update website; to surf there, Google on "cornell lab ornithology clements" to get to the update page. You will also find links to software to help you move your list from the 5th edition.
Unless you are a serious birder, it is hard to understand how important this book is and how hard it is to maintain and update. Check out the Preface here on Amazon to get an idea of the difficulties.
And, if you have any interest in birds, consider becoming a member of the Lab. My sales pitch appears in the first Comment.
Robert C. Ross 2008
a book for the laboratory, from a broad perspective As it was very hard to find a comprehensive book on birds for any price, I got this one for 38 bucks, no big money, but the book is clearly not a success. ...ror the ornithology students or the library in zoological university. That is as plain as it is.
Fantastic reference book This book gave me all the info I needed on the various bird species I was researching. Current species and subspecies nomenclature, range of each subspecies, etc. Couldn't ask for a more precise and complete book.
fabulous book with small faults I will divide in what I find good and not so good of this book . Good: the size ,with 28,5 & 22 cm it's a lot bigger than the Howard + Moore and Sibley + Monroe books , which leaves a lot of space to make your notes inside the book ,like I do , very good binding and of course the complete listing of all the bird species and subspecies . Not so good : the splitting into species goes in my opinion a little to far ,especially by the Australian species . Bad : some species of the checklist are also listed as subspecies by species from which they were split ,with a little proofreading this could have been avoided . For the price amazon is asking ,this book is a must if you want a checklist of the birds of the world .
A big list, not much more Clements is the bible of bird taxonomy, but this book is basically just a list of every species with sublists of each subspecies, and very basic information as to where that subspecies is located. I was disappointed that there is no summary of changes from this 6th edition from the prior edition, although I assume this information will eventually be available on-line somewhere. This is a book that lots of very serious birders know they want, and they should get it. But if you don't know exactly what this book is already and know that you want it, you probably don't.
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