About the checklists

Checklists are now available for all countries within the Region covered by the African Bird Club and the 'Threatened Birds of Africa and related islands':

	Continental Africa
	Indian Ocean islands west of 80° East, including Madagascar and the Mascarene islands
	Atlantic Ocean on or east of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, e.g. the Tristan de Cunha group, Azores and Canaries.

75 checklists are currently available on the system.

About a quarter of the world's bird species, more than 2,500, have been recorded in this Region, with 332 included on BirdLife International’s red data list for 2006, the most recent summary of the world's threatened and near-threatened species.

A database which contains all species currently known from the Region and their occurrence within countries underpins the country checklists. This database contains over 100,000 records.

The database incorporates two taxonomic sequences and naming conventions: Dowsett 2006 and the African Bird Club checklist January 2008 revision. English, French and Scientific names are provided in both cases.

The full African Bird Club checklist can be found at Full Checklist. Here you will find details of the layout, scope and sources of information as well as being able to download a full version.

Sub-Saharan countries
The records contained in the checklist for Sub-Saharan countries are based on country lists in Dowsett, R.J. & Forbes-Watson, A.D. (1993) Checklist of Birds of the Afrotropical and Malagasy Regions, Volume 1: Species limits and distribution published by Tauraco Press, Liège, Belgium. The records were compiled from a number of referenced works and are being brought up to date with records published subsequently.

The taxonomic sequence and naming conventions are those used by Bob Dowsett. An alternative based on the ABC checklist has also been made available on the website.

North African countries
The records contained in the checklist for north African countries have been assembled from a number of sources. Through time, we will validate the information with the country recorders whose records have been compiled from a number of referenced works over many years. These lists are based on the ABC checklist taxonomy and naming conventions.

Latest page update 15th January 2008