Golden-billed Saltator (Saltator aurantiirostris parkesi) ©Flickr Claudio Dias Timm

“Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:” (Isaiah 30:8)

I have been updating the site for the newest changes to the Birds of the World. They demoted 3 species down to subspecies, and raised 4 subspecies up to full species status. Overall, that made for a gain of 1 species. So, now there are 10,660 living avian species in the world. All the indexes are complete and all the updates are done also. These updated comments is at the top of all the main Birds of the World pages:

These pages contain Lee’s Birds of the World, based on the IOC World Bird List 6.4 contains 10,660 extant species (and 155 extinct species)  classified in 40 Orders,  238 Families (plus 2 Incertae Sedis) and 2294 Genera and 20,358 Subspecies.  All the ORDERs and the Families are listed. Please enjoy looking around at the references to the numerous birds that the Lord has created.

One major change is that they took the Saltators out of the Cardinalidae Family (53 species) and put them in the Thraupidae Family (391). Here is a slideshow of the birdies, that have flown the nest over to the Thraupidae clan:

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Slate-colored Grosbeak (Saltator grossus )
Black-throated Grosbeak (Saltator fuliginosus )
Black-headed Saltator (Saltator atriceps )
Buff-throated Saltator (Saltator maximus )
Black-winged Saltator (Saltator atripennis )
Green-winged Saltator (Saltator similis )
Greyish Saltator (Saltator coerulescens )
Orinoco Saltator (Saltator orenocensis )
Thick-billed Saltator (Saltator maxillosus )
Black-cowled Saltator (Saltator nigriceps )
Golden-billed Saltator (Saltator aurantiirostris )
Masked Saltator (Saltator cinctus )
Black-throated Saltator (Saltator atricollis )
Lesser Antillean Saltator (Saltator albicollis )
Streaked Saltator (Saltator striatipectus )

This fellow not only changed Families, but they also changed its genus from Saltator to Pseudosaltator. They also made him a Mountain Saltator.

Rufous-bellied Mountain Saltator (Pseudosaltator rufiventris) ©Flickr Ron Knight

Some of the other changes were the three birds they made subspecies, were all Toucanets. They are in the Ramphastidae – Toucans Family.

Blue-throated Toucanet (Aulacorhynchus caeruleogularis)
White-throated Toucanet (Aulacorhynchus albivitta)

To finish up, other than some minor male (-us), or female (-a) endings to a few names, there were four birds given the full species status. They are so new that there are no photos available yet that aren’t copyrighted.

• Baliem Whistler (Pachycephala balim)
• Chestnut-throated Flycatcher (Myiagra castaneigularis)
• Mongolian Short-toed Lark (Calandrella dukhunensis)
• Streak-eared Bulbul (Pycnonotus conradi)

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“And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” (Ecclesiastes 12:12)

Birds of the World

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